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The Daily 202: How EPA chief Scott Pruitt wants to redefine 'environmentalism'
The Daily 202 Analysis
The Daily 202: How EPA chief Scott Pruitt wants to redefine ‘environmentalism’
By James Hohmann November 17 at 7:34 AM
....
THE BIG IDEA: Love him or hate him for it, Scott Pruitt has done as much as anyone else in the executive branch to advance President Trump’s goal of what Steve Bannon called “the deconstruction of the administrative state.”
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency has worked overtime to roll back many of Barack Obama’s proudest achievements. Even with a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, the former president couldn’t pass cap-and-trade legislation. Because Republicans controlled the House for six of his eight years, Obama leaned heavily on executive action to push his environmental agenda. That made his victories much more vulnerable to evisceration than, say, the Affordable Care Act or Dodd-Frank.
Pruitt has moved swiftly to unwind Obama-era regulations big and small, from the Clean Power Plan to tighter emissions standards for trucks and a ban on the pesticide chlorpyrifos.
Trump signed an order in February to set in motion the repeal of the 2015 Waters of the United States rule, which expanded the definition of bodies of water that are protected by the EPA. “Within eight minutes of him signing that order, I had paperwork in place to advance it,” Pruitt said proudly.
During a half-hour interview Wednesday afternoon, Pruitt extinguished buzz that he might run for governor of Oklahoma in 2018. The 49-year-old said the work he’s doing right now “is some of the most consequential things domestically that can occur.” His goal is not just to fundamentally transform the EPA but to redefine what it means to be an environmentalist.
....
James Hohmann is a national political correspondent for The Washington Post. Follow @JamesHohmann
The Daily 202: How EPA chief Scott Pruitt wants to redefine ‘environmentalism’
By James Hohmann November 17 at 7:34 AM
....
THE BIG IDEA: Love him or hate him for it, Scott Pruitt has done as much as anyone else in the executive branch to advance President Trump’s goal of what Steve Bannon called “the deconstruction of the administrative state.”
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency has worked overtime to roll back many of Barack Obama’s proudest achievements. Even with a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, the former president couldn’t pass cap-and-trade legislation. Because Republicans controlled the House for six of his eight years, Obama leaned heavily on executive action to push his environmental agenda. That made his victories much more vulnerable to evisceration than, say, the Affordable Care Act or Dodd-Frank.
Pruitt has moved swiftly to unwind Obama-era regulations big and small, from the Clean Power Plan to tighter emissions standards for trucks and a ban on the pesticide chlorpyrifos.
Trump signed an order in February to set in motion the repeal of the 2015 Waters of the United States rule, which expanded the definition of bodies of water that are protected by the EPA. “Within eight minutes of him signing that order, I had paperwork in place to advance it,” Pruitt said proudly.
During a half-hour interview Wednesday afternoon, Pruitt extinguished buzz that he might run for governor of Oklahoma in 2018. The 49-year-old said the work he’s doing right now “is some of the most consequential things domestically that can occur.” His goal is not just to fundamentally transform the EPA but to redefine what it means to be an environmentalist.
....
James Hohmann is a national political correspondent for The Washington Post. Follow @JamesHohmann
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