Tag: corruption

EPA Knew Fracking Chemicals Were Toxic, But Approved Them Anyway

Between 2012 and 2020, fossil fuel corporations injected potentially carcinogenic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), or chemicals that can degrade into PFAS, into the ground while fracking for oil and gas, after former President Barack Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency approved their use despite agency scientists’ concerns about toxicity.

The EPA’s approval in 2011 of three new compounds for use in oil and gas drilling or fracking that can eventually break down into PFAS, also called “forever chemicals,” was not publicized until Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) obtained internal records from the agency through a Freedom of Information Act request, the New York Times reported Monday after reviewing the files.

According to PSR’s new report, “Fracking with ‘Forever Chemicals,’” oil and gas companies including ExxonMobil, Chevron, and others engaged in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, have since 2012 pumped toxic chemicals that can form PFAS into more than 1,200 wells in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas and Wyoming.

While the Times noted that the newly released documents constitute some of the earliest evidence of the possible presence of PFAS in fracking fluids, PSR’s report warns that “the lack of full disclosure of chemicals used in oil and gas operations raises the potential that PFAS could have been used even more extensively than records indicate, both geographically and in other stages of the oil and gas extraction process, such as drilling, that precede the underground injections known as fracking.”

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Nancy and Paul Pelosi Making Millions in Stock Trades in Companies She Actively Regulates

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is the sixth-richest member of Congress, according to the most recent financial disclosure statements filed in 2019. As the California Democrat has risen through party ranks and obtained more and more political power, her personal wealth has risen right along with it. Pelosi “has seen her wealth increase to nearly $115 million from $41 million in 2004,” reports the transparency non-profit group Open Secrets. Even by the standards of wealth that define that legislative body — “more than half of those in Congress are millionaires” — the wealth and lifestyle of the long-time liberal politician and most powerful lawmaker in Washington are lavish.

And ever since ascending to the top spot in the House, Pelosi and her husband, Paul, keep getting richer and richer. Much of their added wealth is due to extremely lucrative and “lucky” decisions about when to buy and sell stocks and options in the very industries and companies over which Pelosi, as House Speaker, exercises enormous and direct influence.

The sector in which the Pelosis most frequently buy and sell stocks is, by far, the Silicon Valley tech industry. Close to 75% of the Pelosis’ stock trading over the last two years has been in Big Tech: more than $33 million worth of trading. That has happened as major legislation is pending before the House, controlled by the Committees Pelosi oversees, which could radically reshape the industry and laws that govern the very companies in which she and her husband most aggressively trade.

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Cristina Greeven Cuomo, who is married to Chris Cuomo, is in Jeffrey Epstein’s 1997 address book

Jeffrey Epstein’s newly discovered 1997 address book, published by Insider on Tuesday, connects dozens of new names to Epstein and traces previously known relationships back to the 1990s. One of the new names belongs to Cristina Greeven Cuomo, a New York editor and entrepreneur. She married Chris Cuomo, a CNN anchor and brother of Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, in 2001.

The book lists Greeven Cuomo under a minor misspelling of her birth name, Cristina Greeven. Her entry refers to Manhattan File, a New York society magazine she published after her father purchased it in 1994. The same entry includes an office address in the New York City neighborhood of SoHo, an office phone number, and a home phone number. In the ’90s, Greeven Cuomo was known for hanging out with socialites like Alex von Furstenberg and the former CNN producer Pamela Gross. The latter appears in both “little black books” and is now a close friend of Melania Trump.

It’s unclear why Greeven Cuomo is listed in the 1997 address book. She serves as the editor in chief of The Purist, a wellness website she founded in 2017. A message left with The Purist seeking comment from Greeven Cuomo was returned almost immediately by Chris Cuomo, who declined to comment for the record or make his spouse available.

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Pelosi’s Husband Makes Big Tech Stock Moves Again, Places $6 Million Bet As Congress Looks To Rein In Silicon Valley

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) husband bet up to $6 million on Google’s parent company Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and NVIDIA, just before a House committee moved forward with multiple bills looking to limit the power of Big Tech corporations.

On June 18, Paul Pelosi exercised his Alphabet call options, which give him the right to buy 4,000 shares at a price of $1,200 per share, amounting to a total of $4.8 million, according to disclosed transactions. On May 21, he spent up to $250,000 on 50 Apple calls with a strike price of $100, and spent up to $1 million on 20 Amazon calls with a strike price of $3,000, both of which expire on June 17, 2022.

Fox Business reported that Paul Pelosi “did not immediately respond” for comment, while a spokesperson for Nancy Pelosi’s office said, “The speaker has no involvement or prior knowledge of these transactions,” adding that “The speaker does not own any stock.”

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