Current Events > EPA official arrested on felony ethics charges in Alabama

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https://www.apnews.com/09473e52d1c9438cb93d44af80800741

WASHINGTON (AP) The Trump administrations top environmental official for the Southeast was arrested Thursday on criminal ethics charges in Alabama reported to be related to a scheme to help a coal company avoid paying for a costly toxic waste cleanup.

Trey Glenn, 47, was briefly booked into a county jail in Birmingham before being released on a $30,000 bond. Glenn was appointed in August 2017 to serve as chief of the Environmental Protection Agencys regional office in Atlanta, which oversees operations in eight states stretching from the Carolinas to Mississippi.

A grand jury indicted Glenn and his former business partner Scott Phillips earlier this week. Prior to Glenns appointment at EPA, he and Phillips worked for the coal company Drummond Co. to build state and local opposition to a federal Superfund cleanup in Birmingham that their client would have had to help fund.

Glenn resigned as director of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management in 2009 following an earlier ethics scandal in which he was not charged. He worked as an industry lobbyist before his appointment to EPA.

In a statement provided by his lawyer, Glenn denied the charges.

The charges against me are totally unfounded, and will be vigorously defended, Glenn said. I am innocent and expect to be fully vindicated.

The office of EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler has declined to comment since Glenns indictment was first reported by local media in Alabama on Tuesday.

Were not going to comment on that, EPA spokesman John Konkus said Thursday. Were just not going to do it.

Wheeler has been running EPA since former Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned in July under a cloud of ethics scandals. Congressional Democrats on Thursday pointed to Glenns arrest as further evidence of the corruption they said has been rife at the agency under President Donald Trump.

How many Trump administration members have been arrested now?
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CableZL posted...

scheme to help a coal company avoid paying for a costly toxic waste cleanup

Isn't that supposed to be the job of the EPA?
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frozenshock posted...

CableZL posted...

scheme to help a coal company avoid paying for a costly toxic waste cleanup

Isn't that supposed to be the job of the EPA?

The job of the EPA would be to enforce regulations so that companies avoid having toxic waste that needs to be cleaned up. Not helping them avoid paying for a toxic waste cleanup that they're responsible for.

It's the Environmental Protection Agency, not the Escape Payment Agency.
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CableZL posted...

The job of the EPA would be to enforce regulations so that companies avoid having toxic waste that needs to be cleaned up. Not helping them avoid paying for a toxic waste cleanup that they're responsible for.

It's the Environmental Protection Agency, not the Escape Payment Agency.

No, I mean the Trump version of the EPA.
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