EPA chief Scott Pruitt's grifting is only a small part of the problem
By
Did
you hear that the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Scott
Pruitt, is so corrupt that he spent $1,560
on 12 customized fountain pens? Or that he spent another $43,000 on a
soundproof phone booth in violation of government spending laws?
Pruitt’s
big spending on the taxpayer dime has earned him well-deserved scrutiny and
outrage. But what’s really outrageous is what he’s doing with the EPA.
While
Pruitt was getting headlines for having taxpayer-funded aides do his private
business, his EPA just gutted an
Obama-era law to protect Americans from toxic chemicals.
For
four decades, the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 did little to require
that all new chemicals (or untested old ones) were properly vetted for safety
before allowed onto the market. Even the
chemical industry said it was flawed.
In
2016, the Republican-led Congress passed an
update that would help keep Americans safer from toxic
chemicals.
Under
Pruitt, the new law won’t apply to any chemicals in the air, ground, or water.
So what does it apply to? Only direct contact.
While
spending over $1,500 on pens is a disgusting misuse of government resources,
the ultimate harm it does to the American public pales in comparison to
allowing toxic chemicals into consumer products and our environment.
Gutting
protections against toxic chemicals is just one way in which Pruitt has
assaulted the environment while in office. He’s also a climate
denier and a good friend to the fossil fuel industry.
It’s great when our government checks and balances work on blatant corruption. I’m glad Tom Price lost his job as health secretary when he used private jets at taxpayer expense.
But
what about accountability for actually doing your job? Who gets ousted when
they’re heading the Environmental Protection Agency but fail to protect the
environment? Or they head the Department of Education but let down the nation’s
schools?
The
Interior Department, led by Secretary Ryan Zinke, just pushed out
longtime superintendent
of Yellowstone National Park Dan Wenk, presumably over wildlife
protection policies (and you can guess who is for protecting wildlife and who
is against it).
Lucky
for us, Zinke spent
$139,000 on fancy new doors for his own office, so maybe he’ll get
enough heat that he has to step down. But is protecting the crown jewel of the
national park system — and all of our other public lands — contingent on
whether or not the secretary failing to protect them also misspent taxpayer
dollars?
The
huge amounts these corrupt men spent on their own offices and flights is
outrageous. But it’s their willingness to sabotage the departments they’re in
charge of that’s truly hurting the American people.
OtherWords columnist Jill
Richardson is the author of Recipe for America: Why Our Food System Is Broken
and What We Can Do to Fix It. Distributed by OtherWords.org.
