Pruitt resigns as EPA chief
It’s about time, Dems say after troubled tenure
WASHINGTON – Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned Thursday, ending a tenure marked by allegations of misconduct that led to calls for his ouster.
Pruitt, a former Oklahoma state attorney general, was accused of spending extravagantly on travel, asking aides to run personal errands and accepting favorable terms for the rental of a condo owned by the wife of an energy lobbyist.
The Government Accountability Office concluded this year that the installation of a $43,000 soundproof telephone booth for Pruitt violated congressional appropriations law.
Pruitt worked aggressively to roll back environmental regulations that President Donald Trump and his allies viewed as burdensome to businesses. That won him praise from the president, who stood by his embattled EPA chief for months.
“Within the Agency Scott has done an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this,” Trump wrote on Twitter as he announced Pruitt’s resignation.
Trump said Pruitt’s deputy, Andrew Wheeler, would replace him.
In his resignation letter, Pruitt praised Trump, saying he considered it “a blessing to be serving you in any capacity.” Pruitt said the “unrelenting attacks” took a toll on him and his family.
Democrats hailed Pruitt’s departure but expressed concern about environmental stewardship under a Trump administration.
“Took you long enough,” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., tweeted. “Still a very long way to go to fully #DrainTheSwamp.”
Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., the ranking member on the House Energy Commerce Committee, said Pruitt’s resignation was “long overdue.”
“He repeatedly violated the law, abused his position to enrich himself and wasted taxpayer money,” Pallone said. “Pruitt created a culture of corruption at EPA that has never been seen before in a federal agency, and for months, President Trump idly stood by and allowed him to do further harm.”
Pruitt and his allies, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, claimed he was the target of a left-wing conspiracy because of his efforts to dismantle Obama-era rules. The president has lost his most ardent and effective deregulator.
“I think Scott felt that he was a distraction.” President Donald Trump
Traveling to Montana, Trump said there was “no final straw” for Pruitt, and the resignation was “very much up to him.”
“I think Scott felt that he was a distraction,” Trump said.
The president’s endorsement didn’t stop some Republicans in Congress from joining the Pruitt-must-go chorus of about 170 Democrats. He faces more than a dozen federal investigations examining his conduct and ethics.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who is unhappy with Pruitt’s moves to reduce ethanol consumption that is economically important to Midwestern states, said the EPA administrator was “as swampy as you can get.”
Among the ethical challenges and criticisms:
❚ Aides running errands: A top assistant to Pruitt conducted personal errands for her boss last year, including booking personal flights, hunting for homes and inquiring about the availability of a used mattress from Trump International Hotel.
The errands performed by aide Millan Hupp were revealed as part of testimony she provided in May to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
❚ Raises for aides: Top aides received pay raises after the White House rejected them.
❚ Renting from lobbyist: Pruitt paid
$50 a night to rent a room on Capitol Hill in an apartment owned by health care lobbyist Vicki Hart, who is married to energy lobbyist J. Steven Hart. Pruitt used it beginning in February 2017 when he became EPA administrator and paid only on the nights he stayed until he moved out in July of that year.
The EPA’s senior ethics official, Kevin Minoli, reviewed the lease – months after Pruitt vacated the apartment – and deemed that the arrangement did not violate agency rules.
Pruitt went on Fox News to defend the arrangement, which he said was similar to an “Airbnb situation” in which lodgers pay only for the nights they stay. He countered the criticism that renting from an energy lobbyist was a potential conflict.
❚ Secret calendar: A former staffer said Pruitt’s office scrubbed meetings from his official calendar.
Kevin Chmielewski, Pruitt’s former deputy chief of staff for operations, told CNN that Pruitt kept secret calendars and schedules that included meetings with executives and one in
2017 with Cardinal George Pell, who later was charged with sexual assault.
“We had at one point three different schedules. One of them was one that no one else saw except three or four of us,” Chmielewski told CNN. Deleting records and hiding official documents could be a violation of federal laws.
Despite the drumbeat of unfavorable publicity, Trump appreciated the job the EPA did taking apart environmental regulations. During a speech March 29 in Ohio to tout his infrastructure initiative, the president praised the agency for moving to speed up environmental reviews of large projects.
“We’ve really streamlined the system, where we have really made it possible for people to get things done,” Trump told a crowd of union laborers in Richfield, Ohio. “So many projects are under construction right now that would never, ever in a million years have gotten built.”
When Trump picked Pruitt, he wanted someone who would not only dismantle Obama-era initiatives but reshape the culture of the agency.