EPA's big shift: Will Scott Pruitt fundamentally change environmental protection?
In a Trump cabinet filled with controversial appointments, one of the most polarizing is the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency: Scott Pruitt.
To fans, Mr. Pruitt is a champion of industry who can undo regulatory overreach by the EPA. But for critics, Pruitt – a climate-change skeptic who in the past has been part of 14 lawsuits against the agency he now leads – embodies the idea of the fox guarding the henhouse.
The direction of the EPA typically ebbs and flows with the shifting political tides in Washington. So a shift away from the regulation-heavy focus under the Obama administration would have been expected regardless of whom President Trump installed at the helm of the agency. But Pruitt appears to be initiating a more dramatic overhaul of the agency than the typical course correction seen with changes in presidential administrations, historians say.
What his ultimate impact will be, however, remains an open question.
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