Given a paragraph, generate a claim that is supported by the given paragraph. 1) The claim must contain information from within the paragraph. 2) A sentence within the paragraph can be used as a claim. 3) The claim should not have contradictions within the paragraph. 4) The claim should be at most one sentence long.

Input: Consider Input: Republicans on the GOP-majority Senate Environment and Public Works Committee mostly had praise for Andrew Wheeler, who has served as the agency’s acting head since Scott Pruitt’s resignation in July amid ethics scandals. The committee chairman, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., called Wheeler “very well-qualified” to take the job. But Democrats pressed Wheeler about his work as a lobbyist helping an influential coal magnate meet with Trump administration officials before his nomination to the EPA and his moves on deregulation and on what they said was his inattention to the growing dangers of climate change. “You seem to be consistently doing things that undermine the health and safety of this nation,” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., told Wheeler. Markey asked him why he was pulling back on regulations that proponents say protect human health and the environment. “I believe we are moving forward” on protections, Wheeler responded. Wheeler cited changes he had initiated to roll back future mileage standards for cars and autos and to ease Obama-era clampdowns on dirtier-burning coal-fired power plants. He said EPA staff, whom he did not identify, had concluded that those rollbacks would ultimately lead to health gains. Environmental groups and formal assessments from the EPA and other agencies have contested that, saying the changes would increase pollution and increase harm to people and the climate. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., said the rollbacks in car mileage standards and toxic mercury emissions under Wheeler were examples of unsafe deregulation and went beyond what industries themselves wanted. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., noted Wheeler had failed to mention climate change in his initial remarks to lawmakers. “Do you agree that climate change is a global crisis?” Sanders asked, shouting at times. “I would not call it the greatest crisis,” Wheeler said. “I would call it a huge issue that has to be addressed globally.” Wheeler told lawmakers that he had yet to read a massive government climate change report released late last year that emphasized man-made climate change was already underway. Wheeler said he had received one staff briefing so far on the climate change report. The work of the EPA and other government agencies, the report stresses the massive economic toll expected from increasingly severe wildfires, hurricanes and other extreme weather under climate change. Wheeler said the news media had seized upon “worst-case scenarios” of the climate report. “You are a former coal industry lobbyist that is sitting here,” Markey responded. “That’s the worst-case scenario, what you are proposing here” for easing Obama-era rules meant to clamp down on climate-changing fossil fuel emissions. Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa and other Republican lawmakers, by contrast, praised Wheeler for a move to remove federal protections for millions of miles of wetlands and waterways and other proposals. Republican lawmakers said the protections had burdened farmers and others. The grandson of a coal miner, Wheeler worked for the EPA in the 1990s and later as a longtime Republican Senate staffer. Democrats pressed Wheeler about his lobbying before joining the EPA, saying his work for coal companies should disqualify him from leading an agency that regulates coal. Wheeler’s lobbying clients included coal magnate Bob Murray, who pushed hard on the Trump administration after the 2016 elections to grant a series of breaks for the sagging domestic coal industry. Wheeler accompanied Murray to a March 2017 meeting to pitch Murray’s list of desired rule rollbacks and other breaks for coal to Energy Secretary Rick Perry. Wheeler told senators that his main work for Murray had been on health benefits and pensions. “I did not work on the plan. I do not have a copy of it. I saw it briefly,” Wheeler said, referring to Murray’s wish list. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., displayed a blown-up version of a photo taken of the meeting with Perry, showing Wheeler at Murray’s side. A second photo showed Murray’s rollback plan in Wheeler’s hands. Murray had sought some of the coal breaks that the EPA under Wheeler has since acted on. That included Wheeler signing a rule easing federal regulation of toxic coal ash, redoing an Obama rule that pushed electricity providers to move away from dirtier-burning coal plants and targeting an Obama rule limiting emissions of toxic mercury from coal plants. A watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, filed an ethics complaint Tuesday with the EPA’s Office of the Inspector General alleging that Wheeler’s oversight of those and other rollback proposals at EPA may have violated his government ethics pledge to abstain from regulatory decisions affecting his former lobbying client for at least two years. EPA spokesman John Konkus called the accusation “baseless” and “wrong” and said Wheeler works with EPA ethics officials and follows their guidance.

Output: Democrats hit Trump EPA nominee on coal lobbying, rollbacks.


Input: Consider Input: The committee is also seeking the indictment of Vale and dam stability auditor TÜV SÜD for environmental damages and corporate responsibility for actions of their employees in the late-January disaster that killed nearly 250 people. The 400-page report recommended that a total of 15 individuals, including the two executives, be indicted for murder, wrongful bodily injury, environmental damages and pollution. Fabio Schvartsman stepped down as Vale’s CEO under pressure from prosecutors in March. Luciano Siani, also targeted by the committee, continues to serve as CFO. The committee’s initial report recommended manslaughter charges but at a hearing it approved an amendment to upgrade the charges to murder and add a 15th individual to its list for recommended indictments. Vale, a formerly state-owned Brazilian “national champion” which is a leading exporter and employer, said it “respectfully disagrees” with the indictment recommendations. A “forensic, technical and scientific conclusion about the causes of the dam burst” should be arrived at before holding certain people responsible, the company asserted in a statement. TÜV SÜD said it was cooperating in full but declined to comment further, citing ongoing investigations. Vale shares, which early in the session touched their highest since before the Brumadinho disaster, closed down 4.2%. The nonbinding recommendations could influence prosecutors in their ongoing probe of Vale and its executives for negligence regarding the disaster. “Vale’s tragedy is a series of tragedies,” the committee said in its report. “The immeasurable human loss; the countless dead animals; the environment destroyed for years, perhaps decades; the dreams and heritage of a lifetime buried by the carelessness, neglect, greed, usury, irresponsibility, indifference and sloppiness of a company that used to be a role model.”  Brazil must take action to ensure that “never again” will such a disaster occur, it said, recommending three laws that would require congressional approval. One would outlaw all tailings dams for mining and industrial waste. That would go far beyond a ban instituted in February on the specific type of “upstream” dam that ruptured. It would allow for 10 years to decommission the hundreds of existing tailings dams around the country, a costly move for miners. A separate bill would hike taxes calculated on mineral production, with a tax of up to 40% on more profitable or larger scale mines. The investment banking unit of Brazil’s Bradesco said such a tax is unlikely to be implemented given that comparable taxes in Australia and Mexico are up to 7.5%. But the bank said the rate is likely to rise for Brazilian miners from the current 3.5%. A third proposed law would expand the list of environmental crimes. Barclays analyst Amos Fletcher said he doubted that Congress would follow through on shutting down all types of tailings dams, a move that would halt a significant amount of mineral production, which Brazil counts on for a large portion of its GDP, he said. The recommendations may be depressing Vale’s stock price more than the indictments because of worries that such changes “would lead to more supply being squeezed,” he said. Vale’s tailings dam ruptured in the city of Brumadinho in the mining state of Minas Gerais in late January, releasing a torrent of mud that buried hundreds of people, including a cafeteria full of workers at lunchtime. In the following months, investigators and regulators pointed toward a risky “upstream” style of dam construction, improper maintenance and negligence. TÜV SÜD certified the dam as stable in 2018 despite pointing out concerns about drainage and monitoring systems. Vale has argued that it followed all the required safety measures. While authorities have yet to conclude the cause of the rupture, a Minas Gerais state official and other experts suspect liquefaction, in which solid materials such as sand lose strength and become more like liquid. That was the same cause of a 2015 rupture of another upstream Vale dam that killed 19.

Output: Brazil Senate panel says Vale CFO, ex-CEO should be indicted for murder.


Input: Consider Input: Last year, more than 5.8 trillion cigarettes were smoked, similar to 2013, as rising tobacco use in China counters declines in other countries, according to a report on Thursday led by WLF. In their global Tobacco Atlas, the WLF and the American Cancer Society said that in 2013, the last year for which detailed figures were available, tobacco industry profits were more than $44 billion. Meanwhile, 6.3 million people died from smoking-related illness, equivalent to a profit of $7,000 for each death caused by tobacco. The report said that, if current trends continue, a billion people will die from smoking and exposure to tobacco this century. Besides causing lung cancer, which is often fatal, tobacco use is also a major risk factor for a range of other illnesses. It is the world’s leading preventable cause of premature death from chronic conditions such as heart disease, strokes and high blood pressure. In China, the world’s most populous country, almost 2,250 cigarettes were smoked per person over age 15 last year, making it one of only around a dozen countries topping 2,000. The average Chinese smoker consumes 50 percent more than in 1980, a symptom of a broader phenomenon, as tobacco use declines or is stable in many wealthy, developed nations but growing in poorer regions such as Africa and parts of Asia. “The significant reductions in smoking rates in the United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil, and other countries that implement increasingly tight tobacco control laws have been offset by the growing consumption in a single nation: China,” the report said. Many countries around the world have introduced some anti-tobacco laws, including curbing advertising and banning smoking in enclosed spaces such as bars, restaurants and offices. But the Tobacco Atlas found that only 10 percent of the world’s population are covered by comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and only 16 percent by comprehensive smoke-free legislation. Low- and middle-income countries now account for more than  80 percent of tobacco users and tobacco-related deaths. The Tobacco Atlas also found that smoking among women is also on the rise, driving up rates of female lung cancer. In an indication of future trends, there are 24 countries where girls smoke more than boys, compared to just two countries where more women smoke than men, it said. “Whether it’s the link between tobacco and increasing rates of lung cancer among women or the ever-increasing number of health conditions and deaths related to tobacco use, the health and economic case for reducing tobacco use has never been clearer,” said John Seffrin, chief executive of the ACS.


Output: Industry makes $7,000 for each tobacco death: health campaigners.