Earlier Thursday, two Democratic House members had demanded the EPA's inspector general probe whether Pruitt might have hidden or falsified meetings or talks he had with corporate representatives.
The EPA denied there were any "Secret calendars or schedules," but there were clear discrepancies between internal EPA documents and Pruitt's official calendar.
So where does the EPA go from here? The job of administrator will be taken over on at least an interim basis by Andrew Wheeler, a veteran of the George W. Bush administration, who was confirmed in April as deputy administrator.
EPA watchers say that Wheeler and Assistant Administrator Bill Wehrum will carry on Pruitt's agenda, especially his three top accomplishments - rolling back the Obama administration's climate regulations, expanding the transparency of the science used to make EPA rulings, and stopping mandated increases in fuel economy for automobile fleets.
"The White House is preoccupied with other battles, and it gave Pruitt full rein to change the EPA culture. With him gone, you can expect reforms, but with none of the hard-charging zeal Pruitt had.".
Asked to speculate on what caused Pruitt to veer so off course and make such poor judgment calls in running the EPA, my source said simply: "Pruitt had two failings. He had never worked a day in Washington, D.C., before taking the job, so he had no idea of the level of scrutiny he'd get. Second, the same personality traits that made him a risk-taker on changing policy carried over into other decisions he made. That resulted in some bizarro actions by him that no one could defend."
So while President Trump has unburdened himself of a political liability, he now must decide if he will pay more attention to the EPA to ensure the deregulation agenda that Pruitt started is completed and expanded.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/07/05/john-fund-why-epa-s-scott-pruitt-had-to-go-and-what-to-expect-from-epa-now.html
The EPA denied there were any "Secret calendars or schedules," but there were clear discrepancies between internal EPA documents and Pruitt's official calendar.
So where does the EPA go from here? The job of administrator will be taken over on at least an interim basis by Andrew Wheeler, a veteran of the George W. Bush administration, who was confirmed in April as deputy administrator.
EPA watchers say that Wheeler and Assistant Administrator Bill Wehrum will carry on Pruitt's agenda, especially his three top accomplishments - rolling back the Obama administration's climate regulations, expanding the transparency of the science used to make EPA rulings, and stopping mandated increases in fuel economy for automobile fleets.
"The White House is preoccupied with other battles, and it gave Pruitt full rein to change the EPA culture. With him gone, you can expect reforms, but with none of the hard-charging zeal Pruitt had.".
Asked to speculate on what caused Pruitt to veer so off course and make such poor judgment calls in running the EPA, my source said simply: "Pruitt had two failings. He had never worked a day in Washington, D.C., before taking the job, so he had no idea of the level of scrutiny he'd get. Second, the same personality traits that made him a risk-taker on changing policy carried over into other decisions he made. That resulted in some bizarro actions by him that no one could defend."
So while President Trump has unburdened himself of a political liability, he now must decide if he will pay more attention to the EPA to ensure the deregulation agenda that Pruitt started is completed and expanded.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/07/05/john-fund-why-epa-s-scott-pruitt-had-to-go-and-what-to-expect-from-epa-now.html
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