Gasp! While he was attorney-general of Oklahoma, the new administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency had regular communication with oil and gas companies.
Oh no! Scott Pruitt actually tried to help some them.
A recent headline in the New York Times said Pruitt was “arm-in-arm with industry.” The Washington Post wailed about “thousands of emails” supposedly detailing the new EPA chief’s “close ties to [the] fossil fuel industry.” And an article on CNN’s web site reported Pruitt’s “behind-the-scenes collaboration with [an] oil and natural gas giant.”
The “giant” was Devon Energy Corp., which helped Pruitt prepare documents opposing federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing.
Note to the media: Many Oklahomans’ livelihoods depend on the oil and gas industry. For an official of their state to have resisted unnecessary regulation sure to damage that industry is not scandalous.
Where were the national news media when the EPA was filling positions of leadership with activists from the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Environmental Defense, Union of Concerned Scientists, Center for American Progress, Environmental Integrity Project, Public Citizen, and other groups not known for even-handedness where energy and the environment are concerned?
Where was the outrage when groups opposed to oil and gas helped EPA draft aggressive regulations that tested the limits of federal authority?
Regrettably, the media’s institutional preference for governmental activism mutes coverage of overregulation pushed since 2009 to new, dangerously expansionist levels.
Under President Barack Obama, the EPA didn’t just regulate oil and gas; it tried to strangle oil and gas. The antagonism went on alarming display when video surfaced in 2012 of Region 6 Administrator Al Almendariz equating regulation of oil and gas companies with crucifixion. And it didn’t end when Almendariz resigned—and joined the Sierra Club.
Since Pruitt’s confirmation, supporters of the hostile approach to regulation have been warning about the end of clean air and water in America.
Nonsense. With the overhaul of EPA promised by Pruitt, environmental regulation can only improve.
(From the subscription area of www.ogj.com, posted Feb. 24, 2017; author’s e-mail: [email protected])