Trump's top environmental official spends most of his time hanging out with the industries he regulates
There is nothing typical about the ways in which Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Scott Pruitt is approaching his job. For one thing, he's reportedly built up a protective detail of 18 bodyguards who take shifts to ensure he receives protection 24 hours a day, seven days a week. No other EPA administrator since the agency's creation in 1970 has insisted on such a costly entourage.
Gina McCarthy, Pruitt's predecessor in the position, had a small security detail with her during the day, but not posted 24/7. According to reporting from The Washington Post, agents have had to be pulled off of investigations into environmental crimes in order to protect Pruitt instead.
Then there's the $25,000 soundproof phone booth that is being installed in his office, the operational need for which is unclear even to the contractor that's designing it.
Pruitt has operated with extraordinary secrecy, having refused to publish a daily schedule, in contrast to historical precedent. He also rarely meets with agency staff, instead going through a small coterie of political aides, and often operating without a paper trail.
But through Freedom of Information Act requests, journalists and advocacy groups have shed some light on this information, revealing just how cozy Pruitt is with industry leaders.
Based on calendar information from February through May, obtained by the advocacy group American Oversight and published in The New York Times on Tuesday, Pruitt has used much of his time in office to meet with representatives of the industries that his agency regulates, often to discuss their wish lists for actions he can take as administrator, or to thank him for steps he has already taken.
The records are remarkable because they present clear evidence of a link between his meetings with industry representatives and actions he has taken as the head of the EPA.
For example, according to reporting from Eric Lipton and Lisa Friedman in The New York Times, Pruitt met with representatives from CropLife America, a trade association run by pesticide companies. The day before the meeting, Pruitt decided against issuing a ban on a popular pesticide named chlorpyrifos. The meeting, EPA documents show, was "to acknowledge the many actions taken already to correct recent regulatory overreach."
In making his pesticide decision, Pruitt went against the findings from his agency's own scientists, who had concluded the pesticide causes developmental problems in children, among other harmful effects.
Pruitt also canceled a rule the Obama administration promulgated that would require the oil and gas industry to collect information on their emissions of methane, a powerful global warming gas. This action was preceded by meetings with oil and gas company executives, and followed by a visit from an Oklahoma oil industry representative to offer "just a few words of appreciation" for Pruitt's actions, the Times reported.
In an illustration of just how many industry-related meetings Pruitt has been holding, the Times detailed one stretch during the first 15 days of May:
... Mr. Pruitt met with the chief executive of the Chemours Company, a leading chemical maker, as well as three chemical lobbying groups; the egg producers lobby; the president of Shell Oil Company; the chief executive of Southern Company; lobbyists for the farm bureau, the toy association and a cement association; the president of a truck equipment manufacturer seeking to roll back emissions regulations for trucks; and the president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America.
Pruitt also met with some environmental and public health organizations, including the Audubon Society, but his calendar skews heavily in favor of oil, gas, and other groups that most EPA administrators aren't usually so cozy with.
That may be in part because of Pruitt's stance on climate science. Pruitt denies that carbon dioxide is the main cause of global warming (even though scientists know it is), and has proposed a series of televised debates between scientists on this issue. Since taking office, he has worked to systematically dismantle Obama-era climate regulations, including the landmark Clean Power Plan, which would reduce global warming pollutants from coal-fired power plants.
He has also been overseeing what amounts to a diminution of his own agency, slashing the budget, cutting workers through a variety of means, and potentially proposing the breakup of the agency's regional offices.
He has also been fiddling with the membership of key scientific advisory committees that provide the EPA with guidance aimed at ensuring the agency's research is first rate and any rules based on that research will stand up to court challenges. Pruitt is expected to name industry-friendly experts to some of these committees.
In other words, the person President Donald Trump put in charge of environmental protection isn't exactly spending much of his time doing such work. Quite the opposite, actually.
Topics Donald Trump
Andrew Freedman is Mashable's Senior Editor for Science and Special Projects. Prior to working at Mashable, Freedman was a Senior Science writer for Climate Central. He has also worked as a reporter for Congressional Quarterly and Greenwire/E&E Daily. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Post, online at The Weather Channel, and washingtonpost.com, where he wrote a weekly climate science column for the "Capital Weather Gang" blog. He has provided commentary on climate science and policy for Sky News, CBC Radio, NPR, Al Jazeera, Sirius XM Radio, PBS NewsHour, and other national and international outlets. He holds a Masters in Climate and Society from Columbia University, and a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University.
