Pruitt is Destroying the EPA

The fact that Scott Pruitt is a climate denier and an oil industry minion does not mean he is ineffectual. Pruitt is not like his tempestuous and bellicose boss, he is a smooth operator. He took the job as EPA administrator with the intent of dismantling the agency he was tapped to lead. Despite concerns about his personal spending, his ability to execute his dirty industry agenda has made him Trump’s most successful appointee. In the 14 months that he has been at the helm of the EPA he has succeeded in crippling the agency. The EPA’s executive committee and the vast majority of subcommittees have been decimated. The agency is a shadow of its former self and what remains is being transformed into an instrument for political propaganda.

When Trump named Pruitt to head the EPA environmentalist reeled in stunned disbelief. They could not believe that a fox had been charged to run the hen-house. To no ones surprise Pruitt immediately went to work slashing environmental regulations.

Pruitt has forged a career path opposing everything that the EPA stands for. For years before becoming the agency administrator he had been fighting the EPA in court, suing them no less than 14 times. Now he is free to destroy the agency from within.

In his first year at the EPA, Pruitt supported repealing or delaying more than thirty significant environmental rules. In the Trump administration’s first 100 days 23 environmental rules were rolled back. However, deregulation is only part of the plan. The overarching objective is to undermine EPA’s core missions.

Pruitt’s action represent a breech of the EPA’s mandate to protect the health and safety of Americans. Pruitt is not only a danger to humans he is harmful to wildlife, forests, farmlands, oceans and waterways.

“There’s no question where EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s loyalties lie—and it’s not with the American people” said Heather Shelby, EDF’s Action Network Manager

Pruitt has received scrutiny for having the largest security detail in the history of EPA administrators. Perhaps we should ask why he requires 30 bodyguards. Others have chided him for installing a soundproof communication chamber in his office. The inspector general is investigation the cost of Pruitt’s frequent first class trips and his penchant for staying in luxury hotels. Even a couple of Republican lawmakers are calling for Pruitt to resign over his lavish spending.

The controversy surrounding the subsidized housing he is getting from his friends in the fossil fuel industry is getting a lot of attention. While people should be concerned about his expenditures they should be far more concerned about the real cost of Pruitt’s reign at the EPA. Americans will pay in many ways for Pruitt’s actions, this includes both health care costs and the cost in human lives.

Pruitt has enfeebled the EPA, so even when sane governance returns to Congress and the White House the repercussions from Pruitt’s siege will reverberate for many years to come.

Trump recently said when asked about Pruitt’s fate, “I hope he is going to be great”. Most of us know that he is anything but.

Next: Pruitt’s Advocacy on Behalf of Polluters is Killing Americans, Pruitt is Purging Scientists at the EPA