Security for EPA
chief comes at a steep cost to taxpayers
Regardless of our
political affiliation
my friends!
WE need to rid this
country of the
greedy, selfish, infestation in our government,
while we still
have a government and a country!
Just one of many
that need to be on our chopping block!
Environmental
Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt’s concern with his safety came at a steep
cost to taxpayers as his swollen security detail blew through overtime budgets
and at times diverted officers away from investigating environmental crimes.
Altogether, the
agency spent millions of dollars for a 20-member full-time detail that is more
than three times the size of his predecessor’s part-time security contingent.
Pruitt apparently
did not consider that upgrade vital to his safety when taxpayers weren’t
footing the bill for his ticket.
But on weekend trips
home for Sooners football games, when taxpayers weren’t paying for his ticket,
the EPA official said Pruitt flew coach.
The prior head of
Pruitt’s security detail, Eric Weese, was demoted last year after he refused
Pruitt’s demand to use the lights and sirens on his government-owned SUV to get
him through Washington traffic to the airport and dinner reservations.
President Donald
Trump offered a full-throated defense of Pruitt in a tweet Saturday night.
7 Misleading Things
EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Said In His Interview With Time
In a rare mainstream
media interview, the nation’s top environmental regulator blows some smoke.
Promise
Clean
up air pollution
Pruitt often praises
the improvements in U.S. air quality since the Clean Air Act was passed in the
early 1970s.
But he also says
Obama should have done more to meet existing standards before issuing newer,
tighter limits on pollutants, such as a 2015 ozone standard that drew
opposition from business groups.
In Pruitt's own
words
“One-hundred-twenty
million people in this country live in areas that don’t meet air quality
standards. That’s what the previous administration left us with,”
Pruitt
told a Heritage Foundation event in October.
In line with his
promise
- Plans to keep EPA’s existing
standards for nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, which cause respiratory
problems and acid rain.
- Advanced or approved a higher
number of state implementation plans for cutting pollution than the Obama
administration did in its first eight months.
Not in line
- Missed a key deadline for
implementing Obama’s 2015 ozone pollution limits and has not indicated
when EPA will require polluted areas to take action. Instead formed an
ozone task force.
- Moved to rescind Obama’s
Clean Power Plan, which would have reduced planet-warming carbon emissions
and harmful air pollutants from coal plants.
- Plans to ease Obama’s auto
pollution standards.
- Delayed the legal defense of
Obama’s standards for mercury and air toxics from power plants.
- Halted an Obama-era order to
prevent states from exempting power plants, refineries and chemical
manufacturers from pollution standards when they are starting up, shutting
down or malfunctioning.
- Defended a White House budget
proposal that would cut money for state regulators who test air quality
and carry out federal laws – despite his public vow to push for funding.
In
Pruitt's own words
In line with his promise
- Suggested a top-10 list of
priority sites for the agency to aggressively address.
- Ordered all Superfund
cleanup plans costing more than $50 million to get his personal approval.
- Issued a task
force
list of 42
recommendations for the Superfund program, including steps to speed up the
assessment, review and decision processes.
- Ordered two companies to pay
$115 million to clean up the San Jacinto Superfund site in Houston, one of
two sites significantly damaged by flooding from Hurricane Harvey.
Not in line
- Signed off on a White House
budget proposal that would strip $330 million from the $1.1 billion
Superfund program and cut funding for the Justice Department to enforce
cases.
- Has endorsed further staff
and resource cuts that could make it more difficult to expedite cleanups.
