Scott Pruitt’s relentless assault on science continues, and this proposal is ripped straight from the Big Tobacco playbook. Just like we know that cigarettes are dangerous, we too know that pollution and climate disruption pose a threat to our families — but Pruitt wants to try Big Tobacco’s tricks to hide the truth.
The Environmental Protection Agency turned over documents to Congress late Tuesday detailing nearly $68,000 in newly disclosed travel costs for Administrator Scott Pruitt during the past seven months.
Secure phone booth in Pruitt’s office may have cost taxpayers $43,000, violated law
Mustafa Ali worked at the Environmental Protection Agency for 24 years. Last week he resigned from his position as senior adviser and assistant associate administrator for environmental justice—an office he helped found in 1992 during the Bush administration, and one that Donald Trump intends to gut as the administration moves to cut the agency’s funding by 31 percent and eliminate more than 3,200 staff positions.
A Hollywood scriptwriter couldn’t make this up. One day after new data revealed widespread toxic water contamination near coal ash disposal sites, Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt announced a proposal to repeal the very 2015 EPA safeguards that had required this data to be tracked and released in the first place.
The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is “to protect human health and the environment.” Disgraced EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt tried his best to undermine this vital mission by choosing to slash critical health protections and let corporate polluters off the hook. Now that Pruitt’s been booted, we need an EPA administrator dedicated to undoing his toxic agenda and restoring the agency to its core mission. Progress is possible and necessary – but another corporate crony or climate skeptic will not get us there.
Scott Pruitt is gone, but the fight is just beginning. We need an EPA administrator who puts our health and environment first, period. Any alternative is unacceptable.
