Pruitt resigns as EPA chief under weight of controversies
Scott Pruitt, the former Oklahoma attorney general who parlayed an anti-Environmental Protection Agency crusade into an appointment as EPA administrator, resigned from that role Thursday under the weight of more than a dozen investigations into his spending and management.
President Donald Trump announced on Twitter that he had accepted the resignation of Pruitt on Thursday afternoon, saying Pruitt “has done an outstanding job.” He will leave office Friday and be replaced by deputy administrator Andy Wheeler.
In his resignation letter to the president, Pruitt called himself Trump’s “faithful friend” and said they have achieved “improved environmental outcomes” and “historical regulatory reform” together but acknowledged the burden of the controversies surrounding him.
“The unrelenting attacks on me personally, my family, are unprecedented and have taken a sizable toll on all of us,” Pruitt wrote to Trump.
The 50-year-old Tulsa Republican leaves office 17 months after taking over the nation’s top environmental agency, where he was beloved by conservatives and despised by environmentalists for decisions that scaled back the EPA’s reach.
Policy decisions were not Pruitt’s downfall, however. Instead, he was besieged by
weekly — and sometimes daily — reports of strange spending and questionable use of his employees’ time. He faced an unprecedented number of investigations and had lost the support of even ardent allies in Congress.
“I think he has exercised bad judgment and we will see what happens,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe, a fellow Tulsa Republican and Pruitt’s friend, during remarks to The Oklahoman in Enid on Tuesday. In a statement Thursday, Inhofe said Pruitt “did great work to reduce the nation’s regulatory burdens” and return the EPA “to its proper statutory authority.” He said Wheeler, a former employee of his, “has the experience to be a strong leader at the EPA.”
In early June, it was revealed that Pruitt used his EPA scheduler, a federal employee, to contact the CEO of fast food company Chick-fil-A because Pruitt’s wife was considering becoming a franchisee. Another EPA employee helped him find a room to rent and researched the cost of buying a mattress at Trump International Hotel while she was on the EPA payroll.
One residence that was chosen for Pruitt was a $50-per-night Capitol Hill condo belonging to a fellow Okie and political supporter of Pruitt, Vicki Hart. Her husband, Steve Hart, was also a Pruitt donor and lobbyist for companies with matters pending before the EPA, including Oklahoma Gas & Electric.
In late June, two top Pruitt aides told congressional investigators the EPA administrator urged federal employees to spend their time finding his wife a $200,000-peryear job and asked EPA lawyers to review a rental agreement for his residence, two possible ethics violations. Among those testifying was Ryan Jackson, Pruitt’s chief of staff and a former chief of staff for Inhofe.
“The resigning of Scott Pruitt is proof that morals and ethics and doing your job to protect the public good and the environment still means something,” said Johnson GrimmBridgwater, director of the Oklahoma chapter of the Sierra Club.
The controversies that have plagued Pruitt for months almost all involve money. There was the first-class travel, which he said was necessary for security reasons but later gave up. There were the two EPA employees, former political operatives from his time in Oklahoma, who received unusually large salary raises over the White House’s objections. There was the $43,000 soundproof booth, the $1,560 his office spent on a dozen ink pens, the $3.5 million spent in a year for around-the-clock security.
The signs of Pruitt’s demise have been mounting for months, even as he publicly shrugged off the alleged scandals surrounding him. Advisers and assistants he brought to the EPA from Oklahoma resigned one after another. Most recently was Sarah Greenwalt, his general counsel, who left for a far less prestigious and lower paying position at the Oklahoma Workers Compensation Commission.
Rumors of Pruitt’s seemingly imminent resignation or firing were a constant source of speculation on Capitol Hill for much of this year. And yet the former Oklahoma state senator remained on his feet, defying conventional wisdom and expectations of political observers. A June 5 headline in Politico wondered aloud, “How Does Scott Pruitt Survive?”
On Thursday, that improbable survival run ended and Pruitt fell like a heavyweight boxer: suddenly, but as the result of dozens of blows dealt over time.
Pruitt’s untimely departure from the EPA casts a shadow over his steep political ascendancy. He has long been considered the heir apparent to Inhofe, an octogenarian who hasn’t decided if he will run for re-election in 2020. Whether Pruitt opts for another electoral run — and whether his EPA scandals dog him if he does — remains to be seen.
“I have a feeling Oklahomans will not sit back and allow Scott Pruitt to return home quietly,” said Grimm-Bridgwater, the Oklahoma Sierra Club director.
Pruitt, a Southern Baptist deacon, is likely to lean heavily on his faith as he decides his next move.
“I believe you are serving as president today because of God’s providence,” he wrote to Trump in his resignation letter Thursday. “I believe that same providence brought me into your service. I pray as I have served you that I have blessed you and enabled you to effectively lead the American people.
“Thank you again Mr. President for the honor of serving you and I wish you Godspeed in all that you put your hand to.”