But Democrats’ emphasis on the human toll of Pruitt’s policies was more devastating.

Pruitt admitted to one lie, but otherwise deflected blame or professed ignorance. Pruitt has also become the first EPA administrator ever to seek a 24/7 security detail. In two separate hearings, they criticized him for excessive spending on first-class flights and a 20-person security team, as well as his conflicts of interest.

He went on cable news to question, without evidence, the scientific consensus that humans are driving climate change, stood by the president as Trump signed an order to dismantle core EPA emissions rules, told states they could ignore certain Obama-era carbon dioxide regulations, declined to ban a pesticide that appears to cause brain damage in infants, and backed off of methane limits. During his confirmation hearings, he made two claims to Congress that each turned out not to be true, and faced the opposition of nearly 800 former EPA officials due to his record of attacking the agency.Īs chief of the nation's environmental public health agency, Pruitt has taken a number of steps that earned him praise among opponents of regulation, and sharp criticism from environmental safety advocates. Pruitt has emerged as an unusually high-profile and iconoclastic agency chief. As reported by E&E News in February and by The New York Times on April 10, the EPA has requested 10 additional full-time security guards to form a round-the-clock detail that will protect the administrator.

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