Scott Pruitt Is Carrying Out His E.P.A. Agenda in Secret, Critics Say
WASHINGTON — When career employees of the Environmental Protection Agency are summoned to a meeting with the agency’s administrator, Scott Pruitt, at agency
headquarters, they no longer can count on easy access to the floor where his office is, according to interviews with employees of the federal agency.
“There’s a feeling of paranoia in the agency — employees feel like there’s been a hostile takeover
and the guy in charge is treating them like enemies,” said Christopher Sellers, an expert in environmental history at Stony Brook University, who this spring conducted an interview survey with about 40 E. P.A.
This repeal process is political staff giving verbal directions to get the outcome they want, essentially overnight.”
Jeffrey Ruchs, the executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility,
an organization representing government employees in environmental fields, said the E. P.A.
“But it appears that what is happening now is taking a meat ax to the protections of public health and environment and then hiding it.”
Mr. Ruckelshaus said such secrecy could pave the way toward, or exacerbate, another disaster like the contamination of public drinking water in Flint, Mich.,
or the 2014 chemical spill into the public water supply in Charleston, W. Va. — while leading to a dearth of information when such events happen.
