“‘Teepee’ burner incinerates lumber mill’s waste, 05/1972.” — a photo taken by Boyd Norton as part of an early EPA project to document the country, before modern environmental regulations took effect, highlighted by the Discover EPA Twitter feed. (Flickr: US National Archives)
On Fridays while the current administration is in office we’re posting small, concrete things you can do to help make things better. Got a suggestion for an Action Item? E-mail us!
It’s been almost a full month since the inauguration (good heavens) and it’s hard to keep track of the scandals and outrages, more or less as expected. But if you’ve got it in you to make one call to Congress this week (and we hope you do), let us suggest you spend it on reinforcing the resistance to the nominee for head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Scott Pruitt has built a political career working against the very concept of evidence-based regulation — not just rules to reduce carbon emissions, but regulation of mercury and particulate pollution as well. The Senate is scheduled to vote on his confirmation today, even as Democrats have been requesting a delay while Pruitt’s office complies with a court order to release e-mails that could illuminate his ties to the fossil fuel industry, and EPA employees themselves are, extraordinarily, lobbying the Senate against a prospective boss who opposes the very mission of the agency.
So: Call your Senators. Tell them to vote against Pruitt.
