If you read
or hear much news, you probably know that Scott Pruitt, the head of the
Environmental Protection Agency, is embroiled in a basketful of scandals
ranging from his sweetheart lease on a pricey Washington condominium to his
bullet-proof phone booth and his frequent, taxpayer-funded use of military and
charter aircraft for routine travel.
According to
The New York Times, Pruitt is the target of at least 10 separate investigations
by the Government Accountability Office, the EPA inspector general, the White
House Office of Management and Budget and two House committees over his
spending habits, conflicts of interests and management practices.
“Pruitt made
frequent use of first class travel, as well as frequent charter and military
flights,” his Wikipedia profile reports. “As EPA administrator, Pruitt leased a
condo in Washington D.C. at a deeply discounted rate from a lobbyist whose
clients were regulated by the EPA. Pruitt further caused ethics concerns by
circumventing the White House and using a narrow provision of the Safe Drinking
Water Act to autonomously give raises to his two closest aides … which were
substantially higher than salaries paid to those in similar positions in the
Obama administration, and which allowed both to avoid signing conflicts of
interest pledges.”
Click here
for another brief summary of the scandals.
The problem
is, with all of these investigations into Pruitt’s deplorable and unethical
behavior, it’s easy to forget the actual damage this man has caused – and
continues to cause – to the environment and the health and welfare of American
citizens. Need a refresher?
* Let’s start
back when he was Oklahoma's attorney general, when Pruitt sued the EPA at least
14 times because of policies and procedures the agency had put in place to
protect our air, water and land. He did this after accepting major campaign
contributions from the fossil fuel industry, even though he once ran for the
office unopposed.
* After
winning election in 2010, Pruitt dissolved the Environmental Protection Unit in
the attorney general's office under the guise of “operational efficiency” and
shifted the attorneys responsible for environmental protection to other
branches of his office.
* He created
what he called a “Federalism Unit” to fight President Barack Obama's regulatory
agenda and sued the Obama administration over its immigration policy, the
Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer
Protection Act.
* Pruitt's
office sued the EPA to block its “Clean Power Plan” that aimed to regulate
carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, and the “Waters of the
United States” rule that defined the scope of federal water protection efforts.
* Pruitt also
sued the EPA on behalf of Oklahoma utilities that opposed additional regulation
of their coal-fired power plants, and criticized the agency in a congressional
hearing. As of June 2014, however, all of Pruitt's lawsuits against the EPA had
failed.
* In a
broader context, Pruitt rejects the scientific consensus that carbon dioxide
emissions from human activity are a primary contributor to global climate
change, and has falsely claimed there is no scientific consensus on the issue.
He also told a radio interviewer that there are not “sufficient scientific
facts to establish the theory of evolution.”
* *
*
Pruitt was
confirmed as EPA administrator on February 17, 2017, over the objections of
scientific and environmental organizations. Gene Karpinski, president of the
League of Conservation Voters, said Pruitt's record in Oklahoma made his
nomination “like the fox guarding the hen house,” adding, “Time and again, he
has fought to pad the profits of Big Polluters at the expense of public
health.”
Ken Kimmell,
president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said, “Pruitt's record gives us
no reason to believe that he will vigorously hold polluters accountable or
enforce the law.... Everything we do know makes it clear that he can't and
won't do the job.”
Also, Pruitt
is accused of lying to Senators during his confirmation hearing concerning his
position on the regulation of mercury emissions, according to a spokesperson
from the Natural Resources Defense Council. What’s more, 447 former EPA
employees signed a letter opposing Pruitt's nomination, arguing that his
lawsuits against the EPA “strongly suggest that he does not share the vision or
agree with the underlying principles of our environmental laws” and “did not
put the public’s welfare ahead of private interests.”
He was
narrowly confirmed by a 52-46 vote with Democrats Heidi Heitkamp of North
Dakota and (wait for it) Joe Manchin of West Virginia voting with the
Republicans in favor of confirmation.
Now, in just
14 months since taking office, he has reversed, delayed or relaxed enforcement
of so many environmental rules that no one can be sure if the air is still safe
to breathe and the water safe to drink. For an exclamation point, he has also
halted the agency’s efforts to combat climate change.
But hey,
don’t take my word for it. Here’s how The Washington Post summarized Pruitt's
leadership of the EPA during 2017:
“In legal
maneuvers and executive actions, in public speeches and closed-door meetings
with industry groups, he has moved to shrink the agency’s reach, alter its
focus, and pause or reverse numerous environmental rules. The effect has been
to steer the EPA in the direction sought by those being regulated. Along the
way, Pruitt has begun to dismantle former president Barack Obama’s
environmental legacy, halting the agency’s efforts to combat climate change and
to shift the nation away from its reliance on fossil fuels."
Want more?
* On March 9,
2017, in an interview on CNBC's Squawk Box, Pruitt said he would not agree that
carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming.
* On March
28, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order directing Pruitt to rescind
the Clean Power Plan.
* On April
28, 2017, Pruitt fired scientists from the EPA’s 18-member Board of Scientific
Counselors, indicating he intended to replace them with industry
representatives.
* On June 27,
2017, Pruitt released a proposal to rescind the Clean Water Rule which he had
opposed during his tenure in Oklahoma because farmers and builders considered it to be a burden, and finalized the repeal on January 31, 2018.
* Since
Pruitt took over, the EPA has scrubbed its website to remove detailed climate
data and scientific information. Pruitt called that “undergoing changes” to
better represent the new direction the agency is taking.
* Pruitt has
been aggressively rolling back most of the rest of the Obama-era environmental rules,
including a fuel economy standard meant to lower tailpipe emissions from motor
vehicles.
* Just
recently he proposed a new rule to limit the volume of research that EPA is
allowed to consider in making its rules and regulations. In other words, "science
be damned and full speed ahead." Scientists say the move will negatively
affect policies regarding everything from air pollution to toxic wastes and
pesticides.
* And if
that’s not bad enough for you, Pruitt is now trying to kill off all the bees.
In a recent
action, he announced a plan to promote and expand the use of neonicotinoids – a
family of agricultural insecticides resembling nicotine that affect the central
nervous systems of insects (including honey bees), causing paralysis and death.
This is supposed to protect our crops, but Pruitt seems oblivious to the fact
that humans need the bees to help produce our food supply, and that honey bee
colonies in North America have already fallen by 59% because of a variety of
other factors.
You see, bees
pollinate the crops we eat as well as other plants that feed the animals that
find their way to our dinner tables. About one-third of our global food supply
is pollinated by bees, so without them, humans would have virtually nothing
left to eat.
Of course,
Scott Pruitt will probably be dead by the time this becomes a serious problem,
so clearly he doesn’t worry about tomorrow when some of his donors can make big
money from his rampant stupidity today.
In
conclusion, this is what happens when you put an uninformed, childish,
vindictive and self-consumed bag of ectoplasm like Donald Trump in charge of
“draining the swamp” and using the creatures he dug out of it to run the
country into the ground. Scott Pruitt is only one example. There are others I'll
try to get to in the near future.
In the
meantime, remember that there are elections on the horizon. Please educate
yourself before it’s too late.
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