# Presenting the Pruitt list

*Published:* 2017-12-20
*Author:* Keith Gaby

Special people, places, polluters, cronies, calendars, chemicals, quotes, numbers, and other mischief that was part of 2017’s assault on environmental safeguards. *Or, Who is Arthur A. Elkins, Jr.?*

1. **Six:** Number of former EPA Administrators (Republicans and Democrats) who have publicly condemned Administrator Scott Pruitt’s efforts to hollow out the EPA.
2. **“Little Tidbits”:** What [Donald Trump promised would be left of the EPA](http://www.breitbart.com/video/2016/03/03/trump-ill-balance-budget-with-better-negotiation-cutting-doe-epa-and-waste-fraud-and-abuse/) when he’s done with it. (He actually made this promise in 2016.)
3. **Arthur A. Elkins, Jr.:** EPA’s Inspector General. He’s reviewing Pruitt’s spending on [charter planes and travel to Oklahoma](https://insideclimatenews.org/news/28082017/epa-inspector-general-will-investigate-pruitts-travel-expenses), where Pruitt spent 43 of 92 days this spring.
4. **$40,000:** Amount spent for Pruitt to [travel to Morocco ](http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ae79674cee030e92639b40ed9d781ea5c15ec5c70863a626e8406a4f644e55235b18ffcd9a28ad4f6dbb87c85937a0d4)to promote natural gas exports.
5. **Calendar:** What Scott Pruitt has filled up with [meetings with polluter executives and lobbyists](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/us/politics/epa-scott-pruitt-calendar-industries-coal-oil-environmentalists.html?_r=0), who often get favorable decisions after seeing him.
6. **“It’s just a mystery as to how you can persuade him to not follow exactly what industry asks him to do.”** An EPA employee [describing Pruitt](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/us/politics/epa-scott-pruitt-calendar-industries-coal-oil-environmentalists.html?_r=0) at meetings with industry.
7. **31%:** The amount that Scott Pruitt and Donald Trump are trying to cut from the EPA budget—the most of any agency in government.
8. **“Meat Ax”:** What former EPA Administrator William Ruckelshaus said that Scott Pruitt is [swinging](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/us/politics/scott-pruitt-epa.html) at public health and environmental protections.
9. **Superfund Cleanups:** Pruitt seeks 30% cuts in EPA Superfund efforts while simultaneously promising to prioritize them.
10. **Indoor Radon Grant Program:** Reduces radon in homes, schools and buildings. Pruitt and Trump are seeking to eliminate it.
11. **EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice**: Created to give everyone protections from environmental and health hazards. Pruitt is seeking to eliminate it.
12. **More than 60:** [Percent of Americans](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-environment/unlike-trump-americans-want-strong-environmental-regulator-reuters-ipsos-idUSKBN1511DU) who would like to see the EPA’s powers preserved or strengthened.
13. **Paranoia:** What might cause an EPA Administrator to [keep a secret calendar](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/us/politics/epa-scott-pruitt-calendar-industries-coal-oil-environmentalists.html?_r=0), spend taxpayer money to [sweep his offices for surveillance bugs](http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/365495-epa-chief-pruitt-had-office-swept-for-surveillance-bugs), require employees to [have an escort](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/us/politics/scott-pruitt-epa.html) on his floor and not bring cell phones or take notes in his office, and install a $25,000 [soundproof communications booth](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/12/12/epa-watchdog-plans-to-investigate-scott-pruitts-25000-secure-phone-booth/?utm_term=.8cfa7951f0c0) **when EPA has one already.**
14. **Arthur A. Elkins, Jr.:** EPA’s Inspector General. He’s reviewing Pruitt’s decision to spend [**more than $25,000 on a soundproof communications booth**](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/12/12/epa-watchdog-plans-to-investigate-scott-pruitts-25000-secure-phone-booth/?utm_term=.8cfa7951f0c0)**.**
15. **About one-third:** [Drop in number of EPA enforcement cases](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/10/us/politics/pollution-epa-regulations.html?_r=0) against suspected polluters under Pruitt.
16. **39%:** [Reduction in civil penalties](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/10/us/politics/pollution-epa-regulations.html?_r=0) sought from polluters under Pruitt.
17. **Michael Dourson:** Industry “toxicologist-for-hire” forced to withdraw his nomination to run EPA’s Chemical Safety office amid public pressure and bipartisan Congressional opposition.
18. **Albert “Kell” Kelly:** Senior Advisor to Pruitt. Banker and baseball pal of Pruitt with no environmental experience—but barred from the financial industry by the FDIC.
19. **William Wehrum:** Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation. Sued EPA to tear down clear air and climate protections at least 31 times in the last decade.
20. **Industry insiders who have spent decades fighting to block environmental safeguards and undermine scientific findings:** See [Leadership, EPA](https://www.edf.org/card/polluters-running-epa).
21. **EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors**: Created to provide independent advice, it’s now [being purged](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/09/18/next-epa-science-advisers-could-include-those-who-question-climate-change/?utm_term=.8ad4205bd8d6) to make room for climate deniers and industry-backed figures.
22. **“The evidence is abundant of the** [**dangerous political turn**](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/opinion/how-not-to-run-the-epa.html?_r=0) **of an agency that is supposed to be guided by science.”** Former EPA chief Christie Todd Whitman**.**
23. **Opposition Research:** What Definers Public Affairs, a partisan firm hired by EPA to monitor media, conducted on EPA employees [who might be “resistance” figures.](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/15/us/politics/epa-scott-pruitt-foia.html?_r=0)
24. **Arthur A. Elkins, Jr.:** EPA’s Inspector General. He’s been asked to investigate the EPA’s no-bid hiring of Definers Public Affairs.
25. **Five:** Number of major air safeguards being weakened or eliminated by the EPA: Clean Cars, Oil and gas methane pollution, Mercury and Air Toxics, Smog and Clean Power Plan.
26. **Climate Change:** Global rise in temperatures, fueled by uptick in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, that is triggering more extreme climate events.
27. **“Climate Change”:** Phrase [being purged](http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/29/politics/epa-climate-change-website/index.html) from EPA’s website.
28. **“Red-Blue Exercise”:** Method Pruitt wants to use to [attack well-established scientific consensus](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/11/17/daily-202-how-epa-chief-scott-pruitt-wants-to-redefine-environmentalism/5a0e124230fb045a2e0030be/?utm_term=.2bc16153395f) on climate change.
29. **Benzene:** Dangerous carcinogen that leaked through Houston neighborhoods during Hurricane Harvey without EPA acknowledgement at the time or afterwards.
30. **Arthur A. Elkins, Jr.:** EPA’s Inspector General. He’s reviewing EPA’s performance during [Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.](https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-12/documents/_epaoig_notificationmemo_12-14-17_hurricanes.pdf)
31. **EPA Office of Public Affairs:** Taxpayer-funded unit responsible for [forcing reporters to file Freedom of Information Act](http://www.pitch.com/news/article/20979823/cathy-stepp-this-regions-unlikely-no-2-administrator-at-the-epa-dislikes-regulations-and-transparency) requests for routine information, [accusing them of stealing work](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2017/10/27/you-avoid-fake-news-that-way-new-york-times-reporter-socks-it-to-epa-press-office/?utm_term=.e6065fc5ef90) from other outlets, and [attacking them personally](https://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/03/trump-epa-reporter-attacked-hurricane-242300) after they reported on Hurricane Harvey environmental threats that the EPA hadn’t yet found.
32. **Tar Creek, Oklahoma:** Site of a health disaster where Scott Pruitt, as state attorney general, refused to prosecute [or even release the state auditor’s report](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/06/scott-pruitt-tar-creek-oklahoma-investigation-215854).
33. **Arthur A. Elkins, Jr.:** EPA’s Inspector General. He’s reviewing Pruitt’s call for a mining group to lobby Trump on the Paris climate treaty, which [could violate ethics rules](http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/363586-epa-watchdog-to-investigate-pruitt-meeting-with-industry-group).
34. **“EPA has all the signs of an agency captured by industry.”** Congressman Paul Tonko at [Pruitt’s first oversight hearing ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/epa-chief-denies-sidelining-science-pros-to-appease-industry/2017/12/07/64e9d9ea-db7d-11e7-a241-0848315642d0_story.html?utm_term=.22d879b54136)(a full 293 days after Pruitt took office).
35. **Exodus:** (1) Second Book of the Torah and the Bible. (2) [Departure of more than 700 EPA employees](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/16/us/politics/scott-pruitt-environmental-protection-agency.html) since the 2016 election and the Pruitt assault on the EPA.
36. **Smog, coal ash, lead, mercury, benzene, and carbon:** Dangerous pollutants coming your way as Pruitt rolls back key environmental safeguards.
37. **What we’ll all be at more risk for:** Brain damage, leukemia, asthma, lung cancer, heart disease, heart attacks, diabetes, bladder cancer and birth defects.
38. **Washington’s busiest person in 2018:** **Arthur A. Elkins, Jr**., EPA’s Inspector General.

You can find even more in our “[EPA’s Terrible 2017](https://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/years_of_fear_0.pdf)” wrap-up report.

***Happy Holidays and a Safe and Healthy New Year from Your Friends at EDF!***