US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt told the agency’s employees that he would try to listen to them and use what they have learned to help EPA regulate fairly and predictability, respect the rule of law, and treat states and their agencies more like partners and less like adversaries.
“Those that we regulate ought to know what’s expected of them, so that they can plan and allocate resources to comply; that’s really the job of a regulator,” he said on Feb. 21 as he arrived at the agency to begin his tenure 4 days after the US Senate confirmed his nomination (OGJ Online, Feb. 17, 2017).
“The process that we [use] in adopting regulations is very, very important because it sends a message,” Pruitt said. That message should be that EPA takes seriously its role of taking comments and offering responses so it can make informed decisions on how proposed rules will affect the marketplace to achieve their ends, he said.
Using the guidance process to make rules or settling litigation through consent decrees bypasses the 1946 Administrative Procedure Act, he said. “We need to be open, transparent, and objective in how we [make rules] and make sure that we follow the letter of the law,” said Pruitt. “That will send, I think, a great message to those that are regulated. More importantly, they will know what’s expected of them and can act accordingly.”
Respecting the rule of law in any federal agency means recognizing that any authority it has comes from Congress, he said. That authority, he said, is broadly stated at some times, giving the agency much discretion, and very prescriptive at others.
“We need to respect that. We need to follow that because when we do that, guess what happens? We avoid litigation, we avoid the uncertainty of litigation, and we reach better ends and outcomes at the end of the day,” he said.
Making federalism work
Federalism matters because Congress has been very prescriptive in providing “a very robust role” for states in implementing many national environmental regulations, Pruitt said.
EPA’s regional offices are very important in developing partnerships with states’ environmental quality departments “with respect to enforcement and other related issues,” the administrator said. “And I seek to ensure that we engender the trust of those at the state level. [They should] see us as partners in this very important mission we have as an agency, and not adversaries.”
Pruitt closed his remarks by saying that naturalist John Muir once said that everyone needs beauty as well as bread, places to pray in and play in.
“I don't believe we can be better as a country. I believe that we as an agency, and we as a nation, can be both pro-energy and jobs and pro-environment. But we don’t have to choose between the two,” Pruitt stated.
“I think our nation has done better than any nation in the world in making sure that we do the job of protecting our natural resources and protecting our environment, while also respecting the economic growth and jobs our nation seeks to have,” he said.
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].
