EPA Ghoul Scott Pruitt Is Plotting His Comeback

Scott Pruitt is again, child—and as unpopular as ever. Trump’s former EPA administrator, who was compelled to resign after only a 12 months and a half in energy, announced on Friday that he intends to run for a particular election for U.S. Senate in Oklahoma this 12 months. Reportedly, nobody—even his former colleagues—could be very enthusiastic about this. Sad for Scott!

In case you want a reminder, Pruitt’s tenure on the EPA was riddled by among the weirdest scandals of the Trump administration. In addition to a lengthy checklist of ridiculous bills—together with billing up greater than $832,000 for round the clock safety in the course of the first three months of his tenure, spending $43,000 on a soundproof room in his workplace, and spending hundreds of {dollars} on first-class flights—Pruitt additionally demanded his safety group drive him round Washington, D.C. to search out his favourite lotion (from the Ritz-Carlton, natch), in addition to enlisting an aide to try to purchase a used mattress (??) from the Trump International Hotel (???). He additionally finagled a reasonably candy deal to rent a bed room on Capitol Hill for simply $50 an evening—manner beneath market fee—from the spouse of a fossil gasoline lobbyist, whereas additionally reportedly utilizing sirens and flashing lights to get across the metropolis faster (a perk often reserved for the president). Totally regular stuff!

As humorous as all his shenanigans have been, they shouldn’t detract from remembering simply how a lot of a large number Pruitt induced throughout his scant 12 months and a half in cost. Pruitt, who had deep ties to (and hundreds of {dollars} in marketing campaign contributions from) the fossil gasoline business, was, in spite of everything, chosen by Trump to behave as a form of bull in a china store when it got here to environmental coverage, and he performed beautifully. From filling scientific advisory boards with business hacks, to mendacity about local weather change on nationwide tv, to weakening scientific guidelines that protected communities of coloration from air pollution, to rolling again essential emissions rules in energy crops and autos—Pruitt did all of it and extra.

Incredibly, Pruitt is placing his hat within the sport to switch not simply any previous senator, however local weather denial hall-of-famer Jim Inhofe, who famously brought a snowball onto the ground of the Senate to exhibit how local weather change isn’t actual (okay). The 87-year-old Inhofe, who has served within the Senate for greater than 20 years, announced in February that he’ll retire on the finish of this 12 months, 4 years earlier than his time period formally ends, triggering a particular election. Pruitt picked several ex-Inhofe staffers to serve within the EPA with him; he additionally wasn’t shy about his ambitions to run for workplace whereas he was working at EPA. It is smart that he’s now gunning to switch his denier function mannequin, scandals be damned, and make it possible for soiled pursuits hold having a voice within the Senate (the oil and fuel business has been Inhofe’s top campaign contributor over the course of his profession, kicking him greater than $2.3 million). Pruitt has already made some inroads with business energy gamers, reportedly reaching out to 2 coal CEOs in latest weeks for help. (The race to switch Inhofe is already fairly crowded, and Rep. Markwayne Mullin, who has introduced he’ll run for the seat, has already obtained more than $80,000 from the oil and fuel business in marketing campaign contributions for this election cycle alone, so the business can most likely relaxation assured that it’ll keep well-represented.)

But all this doesn’t essentially imply that Pruitt will reach getting his foot within the Senate door. E&E reported last month that Pruitt isn’t precisely common along with his previous colleagues and folk in Oklahoma, thanks partially to the path of scandals he left in his wake when he exited Washington, D.C. in 2018 after Trump requested for his resignation. The E&E piece is stuffed with some fairly scathing quotes from nameless and on-the-record sources alike, which I’ll simply checklist right here for catharsis functions:

• “Inhofe never put himself before the people — Pruitt failed to learn that lesson. …Pruitt is just an unhelpful distraction [in the Senate race].”
• “Does he really have that little self-awareness?”
• “It’s hard to describe how nuts he is and narcissistic and selfish. I think he’s stirring the pot and planting this stuff because literally no one is talking about him.”
• “There’s nothing that could fix that amount of delusion.”

Yikes! And that’s to say nothing of the opinion of the person himself: “I’m not his biggest fan,” Inhofe told reporters of Pruitt in March. Give me a second to bust out the world’s smallest violin for our pricey pal Scott.