Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) just tweeted his reaction to the resignation of the disgraced and scandal-plagued EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt — and he does not mince words in his assessment of Pruitt’s record.
Scott Pruitt was the worst EPA administrator in the history of the agency. Not only has he acted, time and time again, in an unethical manner, but he has led the agency in exactly the wrong direction. https://t.co/iRUR6sST5e
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) July 5, 2018
I will do everything possible to see that the next EPA administrator actually believes in environmental protection.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) July 5, 2018
While it was the accumulation of scandals over his misuse of government funds for expensive personal luxuries, as well as his illegal use of a secret calendar to hide his meetings with energy industry lobbyists that ultimately resulted in Pruitt’s resignation today, Sanders rightly points out the most salient reason to cheer his departure: a record of rolling back any regulations that actually protect the environment from the worst abuses of corporate polluters.
With Pruitt’s deputy at EPA, Andrew Wheeler, now the acting administrator of the agency, it remains to be seen if Trump will nominate him for the position on a full-time basis and how difficult the fight to confirm a new administrator will be given the opposition to the Trump environmental agenda that Pruitt’s stewardship engendered.
Let’s hope that Senator Sanders is successful in ensuring that the next head of the agency actually puts protecting the environment above the interests of corporate polluters.
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