By Rich Heidorn Jr.
WASHINGTON — Scott Pruitt had his coming out at the EPA last week, promising to root for the Washington Nationals, obey the rule of law and “be a good listener.”
The new administrator took no questions following the 11-minute noontime speech Feb. 21.
Pruitt received an EPA lapel pin, an EPA baseball cap and a polite, partial standing ovation, as he was introduced as a father, husband, former state senator and a businessman — the former co-owner of the Texas Rangers’ AAA farm club in Oklahoma City. Because the Rangers are in the American League, Pruitt joked, he would feel no divided loyalties becoming a Nationals fan.
Pruitt was confirmed Feb. 17 on a largely party line vote. (See Pruitt Begins Hostile Takeover at EPA.)
His low-key speech did not mention any of the more than a dozen lawsuits he filed against the agency, including the one now pending against the Clean Power Plan, nor the executive orders President Trump is reportedly readying that would undo the CPP and one expected Tuesday requiring a review of the 2015 Waters of the United States rule. There was no hint of the 25% budget cut President Trump is reportedly proposing for the agency.
But without mentioning any specific targets, Pruitt gently lectured the approximately 75 EPA employees in the Rachel Carson Green Room that “process matters,” saying the job of the regulator is “to give certainty to those that they regulate.” He also criticized the use of consent decrees that he said bypass the Administrative Procedures Act, calling it “regulation through litigation.”
Jefferson, Madison and Hamilton
Pruitt’s address came the day before Oklahoma officials released thousands of emails illustrating a cozy relationship between the former state attorney general and energy companies.
Pruitt opened the speech by telling a story from Joseph Ellis’ book “Founding Brothers” about how Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton reached a deal over a bill authorizing the federal government to assume the states’ debts. Pruitt recounted how Madison and Jefferson agreed over dinner to Hamilton’s plan — in return for a promise to move the capital from New York to the banks of the Potomac.
Pruitt said the anecdote was meant to harken days when compromise was possible, contrasting it with the “very toxic environment” he said dominated the country now. “I seek to be a good listener,” he promised. “You can’t lead unless you listen.”
He also quoted from Daniel Hannan’s “Inventing Freedom,” to highlight the principle that “process matters.”
“Regulations ought to make things regular. Regulators exist to give certainty to those that they regulate. Those that we regulate ought to know what’s expected of them so that they can plan and allocate resources to comply. That’s really the job of the regulator,” he said.
‘Informed Decisions’
Pruitt said following the proper processes “sends a message that we take seriously our role of taking comment and offering response and making informed decisions.” In oral arguments over Pruitt’s challenge of the CPP in September, EPA had defended its outreach, saying it received 4.3 million comments and held more than 600 meetings with stakeholders during the rulemaking. (See Analysis: No Knock Out Blow for Clean Power Plan Foes in Court Arguments.)
The new administrator also said rulemaking “needs to be tethered to the statute.”
“The only authority that any agency has in the executive branch is the authority given to them by Congress. Sometimes those authorities are broadly stated, giving much discretion to agencies … but other times Congress has been very prescriptive … we need to respect that.”
Pruitt also said the agency should see itself as a “partner” with state regulators “and not adversaries.”
He closed the speech by quoting Sierra Club founder John Muir’s observation that man “needs beauty as well as bread,” insisting that one can be “both pro-energy and jobs and pro-environment.”
In his confirmation hearing in January, Pruitt had defended letters he sent to EPA and other federal officials — on state government stationary and signed by him — that had been authored by oil and gas companies, saying he was representing the state’s interest because the industry is responsible for one-quarter of the state’s budget.
Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune did not appreciate the shout out to his organization’s founder. “John Muir is rolling over in his grave at the notion of someone as toxic to the environment as Scott Pruitt taking over the EPA,” he said in a statement.
Confronting the Bureaucracy
Pruitt’s plans for the agency are certain to be met with skepticism, if not hostility, by many in the EPA bureaucracy.
John O’Grady, an EPA environmental scientist who leads the union that represents 9,000 EPA employees, told The Guardian that Pruitt’s remarks came across “very professionally and conciliatory. He didn’t come out heavy handed.”
“Mr. Pruitt isn’t a proponent of addressing climate change or of a strong EPA, so it won’t surprise me when they start to whittle away at what we do as an agency,” O’Grady added. “I’m wondering when the hammer is going to fall.”
Before Pruitt’s confirmation, dozens of EPA employees took part in a lunch hour rally outside the agency’s Chicago regional headquarters opposing his appointment. More than 400 former EPA officials signed a letter to Congress also seeking to block him.
But the new administrator is doing his best to wrest control of the agency. Immediately following his confirmation, EPA issued a press release quoting elected officials and industry leaders celebrating him and criticizing the agency’s “harsh regulatory overreach,” “runaway bureaucracy” and “toxic regulatory environment.” Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) was quoted calling EPA “one of the most vilified agencies in the ‘swamp’ of over-reaching government.”
The EPA workforce would be far smaller, if Trump has his way. The president will reportedly call for a 24% cut in EPA’s budget, part of broad cuts in domestic spending intended to fund increases in defense outlays.
EPA’s budget would be cut by $2 billion to $6.1 billion, according to news reports, with staff cut to 12,000 workers from 15,000.
The cuts would be far deeper than Congress has proposed, reducing EPA’s budget to its lowest level since the early 1990s and its staffing to the lowest since the 1980s. The House Appropriations Committee in 2015 called for reducing the agency’s funding by only $718 million.
Trump officials have said they will not slash the 40% of the agency’s budget that is sent to state, tribal and local governments as environmental grants. That means the cuts would fall more heavily on programs protecting air and water.
“We have real doubts that can be done without substantially weakening the ability of EPA to respond to environmental problems and to carry out its core functions that are all established in law,” John Coequyt, global climate policy director for the Sierra Club, told Bloomberg.
Emails Released
The day after Pruitt’s speech, the Oklahoma attorney general’s office released more than 6,000 pages of his email correspondence in response to an open records lawsuit by the watchdog group Center for Media and Democracy.
The emails show Pruitt taking talking points from energy companies, including American Electric Power and Oklahoma Gas & Electric, for letters complaining to federal environmental officials over rules on ozone, fracking and greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas production.
Among the emails were some obtained previously by The New York Times, which reported in 2014 that Pruitt had sent letters to EPA, above his signature on state letterhead, that had been drafted by Devon Energy, an Oklahoma oil and gas producer.
The emails were “basically a big, long bear hug between Pruitt and oil and gas companies,” said Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit group that claims a mission of protecting human health and the environment.
The release of the emails also called into question Pruitt’s assertion in his confirmation hearing that he had never used private email for state business. KOKH, the Fox affiliate in Oklahoma City, reported that the attorney general’s office confirmed Pruitt had used a private account for some official correspondence.
