Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt has become a target. Every day, it seems, a new “revelation” is dug up, and then promptly blown out of proportion about his work, his integrity, his professionalism.
One has to wonder: Is this journalism, or the latest Washington obsession?
Some of Pruitt’s critics point out that he eliminated from the EPA’s Science Advisory Board any person who had a conflict of interest, specifically anyone who had received grants from the EPA. Here, at least, the critics are accurate — Pruitt did enforce a commonsense conflict-of-interest policy. The critics’ conclusion that this action somehow makes Pruitt unfit to serve, however, is laughable. That Pruitt took the extra steps to establish new ethics standards for his agency is commendable and should be replicated across the government.
The media worked itself into near-hysteria for a week, questioning the ethics surrounding Pruitt’s Rose Bowl tickets, where his home-state Oklahoma Sooners were playing. The media, having little interest in fact-checking these stories, jumped to the conclusion that Pruitt must have gotten tickets from a firm associated with an energy company. The only problem with this manufactured scandal? Pruitt purchased the tickets on his own, the same way you or I would have purchased tickets.
Pruitt’s detractors also point to the “private” test drive of a new Lexus he received — the same type of test drive that any American can obtain for free, simply by walking into a dealership and expressing interest. As a government regulator of pollution related to the transportation sector, Pruitt actually has a mandate to be familiar with the marketing practices of car companies. It is not uncommon for car companies to educate public officials and their staff about their products. (No one in Washington seems to mind when Tesla offers free test drives and public officials take part.)
These relentless and orchestrated attacks on Administrator Pruitt have nothing to do with any actual wrongdoing. They have everything to do with billionaires like Tom Steyer who, as the Energy and Environmental Institute’s Craig Richardson has noted, “want to control how energy is produced and distributed in this country. … Administrator Pruitt is systematically rolling back Obama-era Soviet-style federal power grabs. Leftists understand this and are trying to stop him with any means necessary.”
If journalists would like to cover a true scandal at the EPA, how about a story following the money trail at the agency, and the “revolving door” staff whose job posts rotate between taxpayer-funded jobs within the EPA and high-paying jobs with firms that benefit from EPA grants. EPA’s corruption runs deep. Nowhere was this more on display than during the Obama years, when “green energy” groups supplied the Obama administration with its officials for the EPA. Those officials allowed their special-interest former employers to write the EPA policies before they were finally offered to the public (as the law requires) for comment.
The never-ending search for scandals involving Administrator Pruitt is a sideshow, meant to deflect attention from his successes draining the Washington swamp and cleaning up an agency that has long been abused by previous administrations to advance agenda-driven policies that have destroyed businesses, trampled on private property rights, and expanded crony capitalist interests.
If the media’s fixation on Pruitt is any indication, his much-needed reforms at the EPA have clearly touched a sensitive nerve in Washington. For that, we should thank him.
Jenny Beth Martin is the co-founder and Chairman of Tea Party Patriots.
