TIME November 6, 2017BONNIE WIRTZ WAS TENDING TO HER MINNESOTA FARM ONE SUM-
mer evening in 2012 when a crop duster buzzed low overhead. The air-
craft sprayed chemicals on her property, missing its target next door.
Soon the fumes seeped into her home through the air conditioner, and
Wirtz wound up in an emergency room, coughing and bewildered and
worried about the health of her 8-month-old son.
She had been sickened by a reaction to a pesticide called chlorpyrifos,
which the agriculture industry uses to kill insects and worms on every-
thing from cotton to oranges. A growing body of scientific evidence has
linked the pesticide to health problems in children. Indeed, Wirtz’s son
was diagnosed in 2015 with a developmental disorder that affects the
functioning of the brain. It was the kind of episode that pushed the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that same year to propose
banning the chemical altogether for most uses.
But when Scott Pruitt took over in February, the agency reconsid-
ered. Pruitt, a former Oklahoma attorney general, came to the EPA on a
mission to change it from within. Since its founding in 1970 under Re-
publican President Richard Nixon, the agency’s primary
task has been to keep people safe from toxic pollutants.
Pruitt has pioneered a radically different approach to en-
vironmental regulation, weighing impact on job growth
and the concerns of business groups on a level plane with
environmental protection when the law allows. In March,
less than a month after speaking with the CEO of Dow
Chemical, the primary maker of chlorpyrifos, Pruitt re-
versed course, delaying a decision on the pesticide until- (An EPA spokesperson said the conversation was
brief and chlorpyrifos was not discussed.)
In an interview with TIME on Oct. 18, Pruitt dismissed
criticism of his industry-friendly approach. “I don’t
spend any time with polluters. I prosecute polluters,” he says. “What
I’m spending time with is stakeholders who care about outcomes. I
think it’s the wrong premise. It’s Washington, D.C.–think to look at folks
across the country—from states to citizens to farmers and ranchers,
industry in general—and say they are evil or wrong.”
But the sharp turn at the EPA and Pruitt’s close ties to the industry
have raised questions about whose interests the agency is protecting.
Since he took office, more than a dozen EPA regulations have been
killed or put under review, from fuel-efficiency standards to regulations
on the disposal of coal ash to restrictions on toxic metals like arsenic
in waterways. Moreover, the Trump Administration
has proposed slashing funding for the agency’s law-
enforcement branch, which identifies polluters under
existing regulations.
All this has aided businesses, propping up the
declining coal industry, ensuring profit margins for
chemical makers and reducing compliance costs for
farmers. But the change has also weakened an agency
designed to save lives. “They’re trying to deconstruct
and dismantle the basic protections,” says Mustafa
Ali, a career EPA official who resigned in March after
24 years. “They’re creating situations where more
folks are going to get sick, some folks are going to
die, more folks are going to be put in harm’s way.”
Pruitt’s work at the EPA is part of the Trump Ad-
ministration’s larger project of rolling back decades
of regulations across government. From the Depart-
ments of Education to Energy to Housing and Urban
Development, Trump has appointed Cabinet Secre-
taries who are openly skeptical about the missions
of the departments they now control.
Pruitt’s quest to remake the agency has gotten
pushback from all sides: environmental groups that
sue over every move, career staff reluctant to gut the
EPA and even hard-line conservatives who think he
moves too slowly. The outcome of these fights will be
pivotal, not just for the Trump Administration and
its supporters in industry but also for the well-being
of millions of Americans.PRUITT HAS MADEhis immense wood-paneled
office in Washington’s Federal Triangle his own.
Framed baseball jerseys decorate one wall. Ronald
Reagan memorabilia is displayed in a cabinet along-
side a Fox News mug, and a bison bust rests on his
desk in homage to his home state of
Oklahoma. In conversation, he slips
between chitchat and complicated
policy, wrapping statements question-
ing the legitimacy of climate change in
lawyerly language.
Yet Pruitt does not seem entirely
at home at the EPA. His suite on the
third floor of its neoclassical head-
quarters is often off-limits to most
career staff. He travels with a 24-
hour security detail, an unusual and
costly move. During the early months
of his tenure, he often chose a staffer’s office to make
calls, presumably to stave off leaks. More recently, he
installed a $24,570 soundproof booth to ensure that
his phone calls are secure.COMPANY
MAN IN
WASHINGTON
‘None of us
are under any
illusion about
who he is and
what he
represents.’
DAVID YARNOLD,head of the
National Audubon SocietyPHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHEN VOSS FOR TIMESCOTT PRUITT ENVIRONMENTAL PROSCOTT PRUITT’S MISSION
TO REMAKE THE EPABy Justin Worland