SURVIVOR WHITEHOUSE
with industry groups and hobnob with GOP donors, but he showed little interest in listening to advocates he derided as “the environmental left.” The feeling was mutual. “Despite his brief tenure, Pruitt was the worst EPA chief in history,” said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity.
“His corruption was his downfall, but his pro-polluter policies will have our kids breathing dirtier air long after his many scandals are forgotten.”
Like Trump, Pruitt is a climate-change skeptic and a fierce critic of the Paris climate agreement, from which Trump withdrew.
The president cheered his EPA chief’s moves to reverse Obama-era environmental rules that corporations opposed, boost fossil-fuel production and roll back regulations that barred mining and other commercial activity on what had been protected federal lands.
Pruitt quit following a series of revelations involving pricey first-class air travel and unusual security spending, including a $43,000 soundproof booth for making private phone calls from his office.
He also had ordered his EPA staffers to do personal chores and enlisted them to contact conservative groups and companies to find a job for his unemployed wife.
In each instance, he denied any wrongdoing.