- He haughtily rejected the scientific consensus that human-caused carbon dioxide emissions were a primary contributor to climate change.
- He began heading the EPA on 17 February 2017 and, by July 2018, was under 14 separate federal investigations by a wide range of governmental offices.
- He left on 5 July 2018.
Pruitt was replaced by Andrew Wheeler, who:
- Lobbied for the coal industry from 2009 to 2017.
- Served as chief counsel to Senate Environment and Publics Works chairman James Inhofe, who:
- was the most conservative member of both the House and Senate (2017 GovTrack report card)
- in 2002 compared the EPA to a Gestapo bureaucracy and EPA Administrator Carol Browner to Tokyo Rose
- was quoted to have said: because God's still up there, the arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous
- He currently also serves as vice president of the Washington Coal Club.
Enough of his environmental employees. Here is a brief history of The Donald himself regarding the environment:
- Attempting to remove federal Clean Water Act protections.
- Rolling back fuel-efficiency and pollution standards for vehicles.
- Significantly reduced EPA inspections.
- EPA criminal enforcement is at a 30-year low.
- Disbanded the scientific review panel advising the EPA on air pollution.
- Announced the lifting of certain restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from coal power plants.
- Allowed five oil/gas companies to use seismic airgun blasts to search for offshore oil and gas deposits from New Jersey to Florida.
- Reversed Obama-era requirements for oil and gas companies to monitor and mitigate releases of methane. To most, there is a who really cares attitude, but for me, this could be ominous. Read my HuffPos on The Venus Syndrome.
- Pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement to curtail greenhouse gas emissions.
That was a crystallization of a lot more. Here, read a National Geographic running list of how President Trump is changing environmental policy. Warning: this will take you 75 minutes. So let me point out just a few more highlights:- Offshore drilling safety rules rolled back. Remember the BP oil well disaster releasing 200 million gallons of petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico?
- David Bernhardt confirmed as Secretary of Interior. His resume in regard to public land protections is as egregious as Pruitt's and Wheeler's on pollution.
- Signed off on streamlining the completion of the Keystone XL pipeline.
- Approved first offshore oil wells in the Arctic.
- Trump administration predicts 7 degrees of global warming by 2100. HUH?!?! Click on that link above and find this article, which defies any kind of logic.
I remember when I was teaching Environmental Engineering at the University of Hawaii when I showed the burning Cuyahoga River of Cleveland, Ohio. Mind you, these fires began in 1868 and the biggest one was in 1952, doing $1 million in damage to boats and the riverfront structures. But the 1969 fire became the poster child for the Clean Water Act. That's the Cuyahoga today to the left. Republican Governor Mike DeWine did the de-listing, and the EPA gave a thumbs-up.
I highlight the environment, for I think that this matter could be that minor, yet, determining factor, in who will win the 2020 Presidential Election. Here were the issues that steered the 2018 Congressional Election:
While the economy is historically cited to be the primary factor in determining who will be President, the fact of the matter is that there were 24 picayune reasons why Donald Trump won in 2016. In 2020, the environment will be one of these. Perhaps the decisive one, for Trump is so off the wall on this issue, and the white, college-educated voters who leaned in the Republican direction will this time take the higher road. Doesn't matter which Democrat prevails.
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