Swamp grows deeper

President Richard Nixon in 1970 proposed establishing the Environmental Protection Agency to provide us with clean water, clean air and to deal with solid and hazardous waste of all kinds. Those of us who remember 1970 think back to the pollution of the Great Lakes, the San Francisco Bay and water throughout the United States. We also the remember choking smog hanging over U.S. cities. Nixon was a Republican, but he was light years away from becoming a Trumplican.

In 2017, Trump appointed Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general and a climate-change denier, as EPA director. Pruitt was elected to AG primarily by major campaign contributions by the fossil fuels industry. As AG, Pruitt was known, most notably, for the 14 lawsuits he filed against EPA, including attempts to block EPA’s Clean Power Plan and Waters of the United States rule.

As director of EPA, he became known for flying first class or on a private jet to such places as Italy and Morocco. He built an expensive security booth in his office. He more than doubled his security staff at a cost of $4.6 million. He provided major salary increases to staff members who previously worked for Rep. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla. He issued a no-bid contract of $120,000 to a Republican opposition research firm. He appointed an Oklahoma banker as director of the Superfund, a position he was completely unqualified for. The list of scandals is extremely long and extensive.

Donald Trump decided to appoint Pruitt’s deputy, Andrew Wheeler, as director. Wheeler previously was a coal lobbyist. Now, Trump wants to cut the EPA budget by 26 percent. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said Pruitt “is about as swampy as you get here in Washington, D.C., and if the president wants to drain the swamp, he needs to take a look at his own Cabinet.” Indeed he does.

BILL LONON Springdale