Reuters - John Whitesides
WASHINGTON - Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott
Pruitt, who had been lauded by President Donald Trump for his aggressive
efforts to roll back environmental regulations, resigned on Thursday
under heavy fire for a series of ethics-related controversies.
Pruitt was one of Trump’s most polarizing Cabinet members, slashing
regulations on the energy and manufacturing industries, including a move
to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature program to cut carbon
emissions from power plants, dubbed the Clean Power Plan.
He was
also instrumental last year in lobbying Trump to withdraw the United
States from the global 2015 Paris climate accord to combat global
warming.
But
Pruitt lost favor with Trump’s inner circle after a string of
controversies including first-class travel at taxpayer expense, lavish
spending on security, the installation of a $43,000 soundproof phone
booth in his office and accusations that he used his position to receive
favors, such as a discounted rental on a high-end condo from an energy
lobbyist’s wife.
“The unrelenting attacks on me personally, my
family, are unprecedented and have taken a sizable toll on all of us,”
Pruitt said in his resignation letter.
Trump announced the
resignation on Twitter and said EPA Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler,
a former mining industry lobbyist, will become the regulatory agency’s
acting chief on Monday. Wheeler is widely expected to continue Pruitt’s
efforts to roll back and streamline regulation, something that Trump had
promised in his presidential campaign.
“Scott has done an
outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this,” Trump
wrote. Trump told reporters later that Pruitt had approached him and
offered to resign as opposed to being pushed out.
Wheeler
said in a message to EPA employees that he was “both humbled and
honored” to lead the agency. “I look forward to working hard alongside
all of you to continue our collective goal of protecting public health
and the environment on behalf of the American people,” he said.
Democrats
and environmental advocacy groups cheered the departure of Pruitt, a
close ally of the fossil fuel industry who has often questioned
mainstream climate change science.
“Scott Pruitt’s reign of
venality is finally over. He made swamp creatures blush with his
shameless excesses. All tolerated because Trump liked his zealotry.
Shame,” Democratic Representative Gerry Connolly said.
The
Environmental Working Group, a public health and environment watchdog,
called Pruitt “unquestionably the worst head of the agency in its
48-year history.”
Pruitt also rankled some Republican
lawmakers, including in Midwest corn-producing states, with his efforts
to overhaul a U.S. policy requiring biofuels like corn-based ethanol in
gasoline.
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa said Trump made the “right decision.”
Other
Republicans, as well as coal and oil industry groups, said in
statements on Thursday that Pruitt had been a good friend to industry.
“Scott
Pruitt did great work to reduce the regulatory burdens facing our
nation while leading the Environmental Protection Agency,” said
Republican Senator Jim Inhofe, from Pruitt’s home state of Oklahoma.
“Policy Will Remain”
Pruitt’s
interim replacement, Wheeler, was formerly a lobbyist for Murray Energy
[MUYEY.UL], the country’s largest underground coal mining company, and
also worked for Inhofe – a self-described climate skeptic - on efforts
to combat climate legislation.
Matt Dempsey, an energy lobbyist
at consultancy FTI, said Wheeler will be less controversial than Pruitt
but without altering the agenda.
“He will be less political and more straightforward in his approach
to the job, which is better for the Trump administration agenda in the
long run. The politics will pass but the policy will remain,” Dempsey
said.
Pruitt was facing around a dozen investigations into his
tenure, including his frequent use of first-class flights and his
spending on security – which the agency has defended as necessary to
defend him against unprecedented threats.
Travel records showed
the U.S. government spent $17,000 in taxpayer money on a December trip
to Morocco to promote U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas, which is
not part of the EPA’s jurisdiction. The Washington Post reported that a
longtime Pruitt friend and lobbyist helped arrange the trip and later
registered as a foreign agent representing Morocco.
In one of the
investigations, the U.S. Government Accountability Office concluded
that the EPA violated two laws by installing the $43,000 phone booth for
Pruitt’s office without telling lawmakers first. Pruitt said his staff
never told him the cost.
Some of the ethics
accusations against Pruitt also involved jobs for his wife. Emails
obtained by the Sierra Club environmental group showed Pruitt had an
aide contact the chief executive of a fast-food chain about his wife
becoming a franchise owner.
The Washington Post reported Pruitt
had aides also try to get his wife a job at the Republican Attorneys
General Association with a salary topping $200,000.
Pruitt also
had an employee carry out his personal errands, including researching
the purchase of an old mattress from the Trump International Hotel,
according to an interview transcript released by congressional Democrats
last month.
A source close to Trump said the controversy over
the search for a used Trump International Hotel mattress was the last
straw for Trump with Pruitt because it involved the Trump Organization.
During
congressional testimony in April, Pruitt was unapologetic for the
controversies, often blaming his staff for any agency missteps.
Links
No comments :
Post a Comment