February 10 – A Political Insurgency on the Left and Right; An EPA Whistleblower on the Flint Cover-Up; SCOTUS Sides With the Polluters

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an analysis of the Democratic presidential race going forward following Senator Bernie Sanders’ blowout victory over Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire primary. Robert Kuttner, the co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect, joins us to discuss his article at The Huffington Post “Generation Sanders” and the growing divide between the Democratic and Republican political establishments and political insurgents like Donald Trump on the right and Bernie Sanders on the left, who continue to defy conventional wisdom in this year of the outsider.

Part 2

Then we hear from a whistleblower at the EPA, Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, who served as the executive secretary of the EPA’s Environmental Working Group and is the author of “No Fear: A Whistleblowers Triumph over Corruption and Retaliation at the EPA”. We discuss her article at The Guardian “Water crises like Flint will continue until the EPA is held accountable” and the culture at the EPA of regulatory capture that explains why a top EPA official covered up the lead poisoning crisis in Flint, Michigan which turns out to be the tip of the iceberg as we learn that many more cities across the country are poisoning their residents with lead-tainted water.    

Part 3

Then finally we examine the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision to halt the implementation of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan until legal challenges from a number of states are resolved. David Arkush, the managing director of Public Citizen’s Climate Program joins us to discuss this blow to the Obama Administration’s efforts to phase out coal burning power plants which will delay progress in dealing with climate change at a time when more assertive action is needed.