Time_Asia-November_06_2017

Jeff Holmstead, a senior EPA official under George W.

Bush who now represents energy companies. “They

think they would be better off with a reasonable reg-

ulation than with no regulation at all.”

Meanwhile, critics on the right complain that

Pruitt has not gone far enough. Myron Ebell, who led

Trump’s EPA transition team, says he wants Pruitt

to challenge the EPA’s endangerment finding—the

scientific document underpinning the agency’s

global-warming regulation. “It’s essential,” Ebell

says. But Pruitt is savvy about which battles he picks.

Challenging the endangerment finding would trigger

a legal fight much like that which ensnared Trump’s

ill-fated travel ban. Instead, Pruitt has devised a

strategy to publicly debate—and likely undermine—

climate science while working bureaucratic channels

to weaken regulation behind the scenes.

ALL THIS HAS EARNED Pruitt Trump’s ear as well as

his praise. Trump has cited the work of the EPA, and

the decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement—

a move that bears Pruitt’s fingerprints—on a short list

of his top accomplishments. “One of the biggest areas

of success for the Trump Administration has been

turning around really big regulations,” says West Vir-

ginia attorney general Patrick Morrisey, who worked

with Pruitt on the Republican Attorneys General As-

sociation. “Pruitt is the driving force behind that.”

In some ways that’s because he is the President’s

stylistic opposite. While Trump speaks in generali-

ties and governs by tweet, Pruitt can talk the nuts

and bolts of policy and works the levers of his agency

slowly and subtly. If the President is impulsive, Pruitt

thinks two steps ahead. It is a measure of his politi-

cal acumen that he has thrived despite often being

at odds on climate policy with some of the Presi-

dent’s closest confidants, such as his daughter Ivanka

Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

It is one reason why many observers believe Pruitt

has his eye on a political job, such as governor of Okla-

homa or one of the state’s U.S. Senate seats. For all his

impact at the EPA, Pruitt seems destined to spend

much of his time at the agency battling environmen-

talists and blue-state attorneys general, who are fil-

ing lawsuits to challenge every regulatory rollback.

This summer, a federal court rejected an attempt to

delay a rule curbing methane emissions, and Pruitt

backed off a similar delay to a rule on ozone.

But even if Pruitt were to depart today, his tenure

would still leave a substantial mark. The chemicals

and pollutants spilling into our air and water will not

just disappear when a new EPA chief comes to town.

And neither will the health effects. Just ask Bonnie

Wirtz. “This shouldn’t be happening,” she says of the

EPA delay on chlorpyrifos. “We have the scientific

evidence for a ban. Let’s do it.” □

ZOMBIE BANKS

The Federal

Reserve and the

Federal Deposit

Insurance

Corporation are

considering a

rule that would

allow banks to

update every two

years, rather than

annually, what

they call living

wills—a road map

for shutting failing

banks.

WORKER

COMPENSATION

Large firms

no longer

have to report

detailed pay

data—showing

how female

and minority

employees are

compensated—

to the Equal

Employment

Opportunity

Commission.

WORKER SAFETY

The Occupational

Safety and Health

Administration

has twice

shelved a rule

that requires

employers to

electronically

submit worker-

injury data.

TRADE

The President

withdrew the

U.S. from the

Trans-Pacific

Partnership trade

deal with 11

other nations,

prompting the

other nations

to reboot it

without American

involvement.

△

Environmental activists protest on the

National Mall on April 29

MICHAEL NIGRO—PACIFIC PRESS/ZUMA