"Screw It" Pruitt - aka EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt

I worked for several years for the Environmental Protection Agency under the leadership of Carol Browner, whom I loved, and Christine Todd Whitman, whom I disliked.   (I didn't like the directive to address her as "Governor Whitman," actually.)  The current Administrator is the 14th, and he was appointed by the 45th President; I completely loathe both of these men.
  (Edward) Scott Pruitt was born in Danville, Kentucky in May 1968; his family moved to Lexington, Kentucky when he was a boy.  He was awarded an athletic scholarship to the University of Kentucky, but moved on to Georgetown College after a year, where he graduated with degrees in political science and communication.  He then moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma where he earned his Juris Doctor law degree from the University of Tulsa College of Law in 1993.
  After law school, Pruitt started a solo legal practice in Tulsa that he named "Christian Legal Services," which focused on defending Christians in religious liberty cases. He worked out of that office for 5 years before running for the Oklahoma state senate, and he won the election, representing Tulsa and Wagoner counties for two terms.
   After two years in the state senate, Pruitt was selected to serve as the Republican whip from 2001 to 2003.  He was then selected to serve as the Republican Assistant Floor Leader, until 2006.  During that time, he also sat as chairman of a task force for the American Legislative Exchange Council.  There, he sponsored a workers'-compensation reform bill that sought to impose drug tests on workers who were involved in on-the-job injuries or accidents.  In 2005, Pruitt told a radio interviewer that there are "not sufficient scientific facts to establish the theory of evolution."
  In 2010, Pruitt was elected the Attorney General of Oklahoma.  In that role, he opposed abortion rights, same-sex marriage, the Affordable Care Act, and almost all environmental regulations as a self-described "leading advocate against the EPA's activist agenda."  In his campaigns for Oklahoma Attorney General, Pruitt received major corporate and employee campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry, taking at least $215,574 between 2010 and 2014, even though he ran unopposed in 2014.  In his role as Attorney General of Oklahoma, he sued the Environmental Protection Agency at least 14 times.  Pruitt was elected as chairman of the Republican Attorneys General Association in 2012, and was re-elected for a second term in 2013.
  Administrator Pruitt rejects the scientific consensus that human-caused carbon dioxide emissions are a primary contributor to climate change; and has falsely claimed there is no scientific consensus on climate change.  As EPA leader, Pruitt has reversed and delayed numerous environmental rules, relaxed enforcement of existing rules, and has halted the agency's efforts to combat climate change.
Pruitt assumed the office of EPA Administrator on 17 February 2017.
  By the middle of this month, April 2018, Pruitt is under 10 (ten) separate investigations by the Government Accountability Office, the EPA's Inspector General, the White House Office of Management and Budget, and two Congressional House committees over his spending habits, conflicts of interest and management practices.  His spending extravagances include having spent over $3 million for his personal security team of 20+, which has included security at the Rose Bowl, Disneyland, basketball games and family vacations.  He has spent $43,000 for a "sound proof phone booth" inside his office, plus has greatly exceeded the budget for bullet-proof vests, ammunition, art loans from the Smithsonian Institute, and the framing of  a flag in his office.  He also made frequent use of first class air flights, as well as frequent charter and specially scheduled military flights.
   Pruitt has had private, undisclosed meetings with heads of industries; and special concerns have been raised concerning those meetings with coal miners and an appearance in a video promoting the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.  He has been caught using four e-mail addresses, only two of which were known to Congress, and Senator John Barrasso (Republican, Wyoming) has sent sent Pruitt a letter warning  him that the use of those e-mail addresses makes the use of FOIA impossible and is breaking the law.
  Also under investigation are his multiple dismissals of well-known scientists from EPA Science Advisory Boards, whom he replaced with people from the industries and state regulators in the areas they are giving advisement.  Most people know about Pruitt's "renting" a condo in Washington, DC for $50 per night that belongs to a lobbyist whose clients were regulated by the EPA.  He was also involved in a housing scam during his time in the Oklahoma state senate, which (gasp!) incredibly also involved the two assistants for whom he got very large, un-authorized pay raises.  Misters Wagner and Kelly are friends from Oklahoma, and Pruitt used a narrow provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act to autonomously give raises of approximately $28,000 and $57,000 each, which allowed both of his friends to avoid signing conflicts of interest pledges.
    Talk about scheming lawyers!!!!