Co-written by Marc Yaggi and Gabrielle Segal
A large segment of the population breathed a sigh of relief when Scott Pruitt finally resigned his position as EPA Administrator. Pruitt’s ethics violations are ultimately what pushed him out, but his attack on environmental protections, censoring of science, advocating disastrous climate policy, and rolling back of standards for clean air and water and public health, were truly frightening. The relief, however, was short-lived. Trump put former coal industry and energy lobbyist Andrew Wheeler in Pruitt’s place as the Acting EPA Administrator. Wheeler is more of the same, and perhaps even more dangerous than Pruitt. According to Politico, Wheeler is “on board” with Trump’s deregulatory agenda. Unlike Pruitt, Wheeler has had a long career in Washington (which includes having worked for Congress’s most prominent climate change denier, Sen. Jim Inhofe), has a relatively good reputation, and has proven adept at keeping a clean public profile. This experience may lend him an easier time advancing Trump’s dangerous deregulatory agenda while remaining out of the spotlight.
Scandals aside, Americans were concerned that Pruitt’s actions would negatively affect their health and the environment. While Wheeler, who had high praise for work done at EPA under Pruitt, may not spend $43,000 on a soundproof phone booth, history suggests he will continue to weaken environmental protections. But Trump now has an opportunity to listen to Americans on all sides of the political spectrum who are concerned with the state of the environment and public health by changing EPA’s direction. He can learn from President Ronald Reagan.
Anne Gorsuch ran EPA for the first 28 months of Reagan’s presidency. She was hired to “fix” the organization, which Reagan deemed inefficient and costly, much like Trump and Pruitt. Gorsuch slashed EPA’s staff and budget, launched a brutal attack on clean water and air rules, and created a toxic workplace culture. Perhaps most infamously, Gorsuch was found in contempt of Congress due to a scandal over a Superfund cleanup program. While this is what eventually forced her to resign, popular discontent was high as well. Reagan and Gorsuch’s deregulatory agenda caused Americans to fear for their health, and morale within the agency was markedly low.
President Reagan learned from his mistake, and instead of hiring an equally unqualified, anti-environment, pro-industry EPA administrator, he hired William D. Ruckelshaus, who also served as EPA’s first administrator under President Nixon. Ruckelshaus was popular among the right and left because he did his job. Americans trusted that he would responsibly advance EPA’s mission: “to protect public health and the environment.” In an op-ed in The New York Times shortly after Trump’s inauguration, Ruckelshaus noted how Reagan learned from his mistake that the “government backsliding on protecting Americans’ health and the environment would not be tolerated by an awakened, angry and energized public.” Ruckelshaus correctly contended that “a strong and credible regulatory regime is essential to the smooth functioning of our economy.” If people don’t trust the government to protect them, they will “withdraw permission for companies to do business.” Bringing Ruckelshaus back to EPA was a smart move by Reagan; it showed that the president was capable of admitting a mistake and started to restore the agency’s core mission that had been eviscerated under Gorsuch.
The public needs to let the Trump administration know that Americans worry about EPA’s deregulatory agenda even more than we do about ethics controversies because unregulated pollution directly impacts our health, the health of our loved ones, and our future. Wheeler’s actions suggest he would protect industry and polluters over the environment and human health. Wheeler is not yet the permanent Pruitt replacement — it’s time for Americans to do what we can to keep him, or another equally dangerous appointee, out.
*Photo: Administrator William Ruckelshaus on a tour of the Four Corners Air Quality Region by EPA airplane. Photo source: EPA.