EPA boss Pruitt resigns amidst scandals
One-year tenure saw US$3m in spending
WASHINGTON: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned on Thursday amid ethics investigations of outsized security spending, first-class flights and a sweetheart condo lease.
With Mr Pruitt’s departure, President Donald Trump loses an administrator many conservatives regarded as one of the more effective members of his Cabinet. But Mr Pruitt had also been dogged for months by scandals that spawned more than a dozen federal and congressional investigations.
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and other officials pushed Mr Pruitt to tender his resignation on Thursday amid mounting scandals, according to a senior administration official not authorised to discuss the situation publicly. Talking to reporters on Air Force One, Mr Trump continued to praise his scandal-plagued EPA chief, saying there was “no final straw’’ and he had not asked for Mr Pruitt’s resignation.
“Scott is a terrific guy,’’ Mr Trump said. “He came to me and said I have such great confidence in the administration I don’t want to be a distraction. ... He’ll go and do great things and have a wonderful life, I hope.’’
In his resignation letter, Mr Pruitt expressed no regrets.
“It is extremely difficult for me to cease serving you in this role first because I count it a blessing to be serving you in any capacity, but also, because of the transformative work that is occurring,’’ Mr Pruitt wrote. “However, the unrelenting attacks on me personally, my family, are unprecedented and have taken a sizable toll on all of us.’’
Mr Pruitt, a Republican, had appeared Wednesday at a White House picnic for Independence Day, wearing a red-checked shirt and loafers with gold trim. Mr Trump gave him and other officials a brief shoutout, offering no sign of any immediate change in his job.
EPA Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, will take the helm as acting administrator starting on Monday.
“I have no doubt that Andy will continue on with our great and lasting EPA agenda,’’ Mr Trump tweeted on Thursday.
Mr Pruitt’s resignation came days after two of his closest advisers spoke to House oversight committee investigators and revealed new, embarrassing details in ethics scandals involving Mr Pruitt.
Samantha Dravis, who recently resigned as Mr Pruitt’s policy chief, told investigators last week that Mr Pruitt had made clear to her before and after he became EPA administrator that he would like the attorney general’s job, held then and now by Jeff Sessions.
Mr Pruitt “had hinted at that (sic) some sort of conversation had taken place between he and the president,’’ Mr Dravis told congressional investigators, according to a transcript obtained on Thursday. “That was the position he was originally interested in.’’
A former Oklahoma attorney general close to the oil and gas industry, Mr Pruitt had filed more than a dozen lawsuits against the agency he was picked to lead. Arriving in Washington, he worked relentlessly to dismantle the Obama-era environmental regulations that aimed to reduce toxic pollution and planet-warming carbon emissions.
During his one-year tenure, Mr Pruitt crisscrossed the country at taxpayer expense to speak with industry groups and hobnob with GOP donors, but he showed little interest in listening to advocates he derided as “the environmental left’’. Those groups quickly applauded his departure.
“Despite his brief tenure, Mr 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 Mr Trump, Mr Pruitt voiced skepticism about mainstream climate science and was a fierce critic of the Paris climate agreement. The president cheered his EPA chief’s moves to boost fossil fuel production and roll back regulations opposed by corporate interests.
But despite boasts of slashing red tape and promoting job creation, Mr Pruitt had a mixed record of producing real-world results. Many of the EPA regulations Mr Pruitt scraped or delayed had not yet taken effect, and the tens of thousands of lost coal mining jobs the president pledged to bring back never materialised.
Mr Pruitt was forced out following a series of revelations involving pricey trips with first-class airline seats and unusual security spending. He also demanded 24-hour-a-day protection from armed officers, resulting in a swollen 20-member security detail that blew through budgets and racked up expenses of more than US$3 million.