EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned yesterday following a long battle with ethics violations allegations. Pruitt, a self-proclaimed “leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda,” is an avid climate change denier, fossil fuel supporter and collaborator with oil and gas companies.
Pruitt’s term was riddled with multiple ethics violations such as using his position to try and set up a Chick-fil-A franchise for his wife and allegedly using taxpayer funds to travel privately. Most recently, it was reported that Pruitt has enlisted his aides to find luxury pillows and arrange a family trip to California. The House Oversight Committee is currently investigating the allegations against Pruitt.
This week it was revealed that Pruitt was maintaining a secret calendar that chronicled his ethically-questionable meetings with special interests. Additionally, Pruitt required government employees to alter or all together delete records of controversial correspondence on his public calendar, a potential violation of federal law.
Prior to his confirmation many EPA employees, including lawyers, policy advocates and scientists, launched a nationwide effort asking the Senate to oppose his confirmation.
Pruitt denies that he resigned due to these allegations; instead stating that he is resigning because of “unrelenting attacks” on himself and his family. Pruitt’s deputy, Andrew Wheeler, will serve as acting administrator until Trump finds a replacement. Wheeler is a former coal industry lobbyist and previously served as chief of staff to Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, a notoriously outspoken climate change denier.
Evidence on global climate change as a result of human activity is overwhelming and has garnered wide-spread scientific consensus among leading scientific societies. According to NASA, sea level rise, global temperature rise, the warming of our oceans, shrinking ice sheets, glacial retreat, declining Arctic sea ice, ocean acidification, and declining snow cover are just a few among the many outcomes and signs indicating rapid environmental deterioration as a consequence of climate change.
Climate change has a profound effect on the female population around the globe. In developing nations, women account for over 50 percent of the agricultural workforce and the effects of climate change would have a detrimental impact on their livelihoods.
Media Resources: The Hill 7/3/18; NBC 7/5/18; CNBC 02/16/2017, The Hill 06/06/2018, The Washington Post, The Washington Post 06/04/2018, The Hill 05/01/2018, CNN 07/05/2018, CNN 07/05/2018; Feminist Newswire 2/17/17
