Scott Pruitt received a call from John Kelly on Thursday telling him that Trump had decided to pull the plug and that he had to resign immediately. He was not expecting it, incredible as that may sound. He also was told that he was being let go over issues with his calendar and his mattress. No, this isn’t snark, this was reported in Bloomberg:
Pruitt didn’t want to leave his post and was described as being devastated that he had to resign, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing a personnel matter.
President Donald Trump wanted Pruitt to leave, after revelations that the administrator’s public schedule had been altered to shield some meetings from public view, they said. Doctored schedules — which could be a criminal violation of the Federal Records Act — were effectively the final straw after a tenure marred by alleged ethical missteps. The administration knew that more damaging reports would emerge soon, one of the people said. […]
An early June disclosure that a top EPA aide helped Pruitt try to buy a used mattress from the Trump International Hotel was particularly embarrassing to the president, one of the people said.
So all the graft and abuse of power didn’t convince the Trump administration that Pruitt was bad news, but the calendar broke the camel’s back. In any event, in the last hours of his tenure at EPA Friday, Pruitt rolled back a measure designed to decrease pollution by diesel trucks which had been a bi-partisan effort in effect for almost two decades. New York Times:
…the Environmental Protection Agency moved on Friday to effectively grant a loophole that will allow a major increase in the manufacturing of a diesel freight truck that produces as much as 55 times the air pollution as trucks that have modern emissions controls.
The move by the E.P.A. came after intense lobbying by a small set of manufacturers that sell glider trucks, which use old engines built before new technologies significantly reduced emissions of particulates and nitrogen oxide that are blamed for asthma, lung cancer and other ailments.
It was just as strongly opposed by an unusual alliance of public health groups like the American Lung Association, environmental groups like the Environmental Defense Fund and major industry players like United Parcel Service, the largest truck fleet owner, and Volvo Group, one of the largest truck manufacturers.
The shift in agency policy came quietly late Friday, the last day of work for Mr. Pruitt, who resigned after several ethics scandals. But agency officials confirmed to The New York Times that, through the end of 2019, the E.P.A. will not enforce an annual cap of 300 gliders per manufacturer that had been imposed in January.
Don’t let the door hit you in the ass, Scott.
While you’re busy cheering that Pruitt is finally gone, just know that his successor, Andrew Wheeler, is just as bad.
We need to vote these bums out.
