Publisher, Fran Zankowski Circulation Manager, Cal Winn EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief, Caitlin Rockett News Editor, Will Brendza Food Editor, John Lehndorff Interns, Ben Berman, Rebecca Rommen Contributing Writers: Dave Anderson, Emma Athena, Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Shay Castle, Angela K. Evans, Mark Fearer, Jodi Hausen, Karlie Huckels, Dave Kirby, Matt Maenpaa, Sara McCrea, Rico Moore, Adam Perry, Katie Rhodes, Dan Savage, Alan Sculley, Will Matuska, Tom Winter SALES AND MARKETING Market Development Manager, Kellie Robinson Account Executives, Matthew Fischer, Carter Ferryman Mrs. Boulder Weekly, Mari Nevar PRODUCTION Art Director, Susan France Senior Graphic Designer, Mark Goodman CIRCULATION TEAM Sue Butcher, Ken Rott, Chris Bauer BUSINESS OFFICE Bookkeeper, Regina Campanella Founder/CEO, Stewart Sallo Editor-at-Large, Joel Dyer July 7, 2022 Volume XXIX, number 43 As Boulder County's only independently owned newspaper, Boulder Weekly is dedicated to illuminating truth, advancing justice and protecting the First Amendment through ethical, no-holds-barred journalism, and thought-provoking opinion writing. Free every Thursday since 1993, the Weekly also offers the county's most comprehensive arts and entertainment coverage. Read the print version, or visit boulderweekly.com. Boulder Weekly does not accept unsolicited editorial submissions. If you're interested in writing for the paper, please send queries to: editorial@boulderweekly.com. Any materials sent to Boulder Weekly become the property of the newspaper. 690 South Lashley Lane, Boulder, CO, 80305 p 303.494.5511 f 303.494.2585 editorial@boulderweekly.com www.boulderweekly.com Boulder Weekly is published every Thursday. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. © 2022 Boulder Weekly, Inc., all rights reserved.
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Colorado’s backstory to court’s EPA gutting by Dave Anderson
T
he Supreme Court is staging a counterrevolution against social progress, rewriting laws and twisting the Constitution to please a right-wing minority with highly unpopular rulings on choice, guns, church and state, and the environment. The Court issued a ruling in West Virginia v. EPA, which undermined the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to meaningfully regulate greenhouse gases. The New York Times reported that the case “is the product of a coordinated, multiyear strategy by Republican attorneys general, conservative legal activists and their funders, several with ties to the oil and coal industries, to use the judicial system to rewrite environmental law, weakening the executive branch’s ability to tackle global warming.” The ruling has a Colorado back story. Justice Neil Gorsuch is the son of Anne Gorsuch, who was Ronald Reagan’s highly controversial first EPA administrator. She slashed the agency’s budget by nearly a quarter
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and bragged that she had reduced the thickness of the book of clean water regulations from six inches to a half inch. A war broke out within the EPA. She appointed flunkies from the polluting industries the EPA was supposed to be regulating. She chose Rita Levelle, a PR executive with a military contractor which had potentially massive hazardous waste liabilities. After her appointment, many of the EPA’s top scientists and administrators immediately quit. Levelle would later be convicted on charges of lying to Congress, and spent six months in federal prison. Environmental reporter Jeffrey St. Clair notes: “Gorsuch’s downfall came after congressional investigators requested records of her warm chats with companies under EPA jurisdiction. At the advice of a White House counsel, Gorsuch refused to turn over the documents and was duly cited with contempt of Congress. When she was called to defend herself, the Reagan justice department declined to accompany her to the Hill. Gorsuch resigned in disgust.” Gorsuch was a member of a team from a little noticed state. A Sept. 6, 1981 New York Times article proclaimed “The ‘Colorado Mafia’ Puts Its Stamp on The Government.” Reporter William E. Schmidt wrote that many in Washingsee THE ANDERSON FILES Page 8 l
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