U.S. PIRG statement on the resignation of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt

Media Contacts
Kara Cook-Schultz

U.S. PIRG

President Donald Trump announced today via Twitter that he has accepted the resignation of embattled Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt.

In response, Kara Cook-Schultz, the director of U.S. PIRG’s toxics program, released this statement:

“Scott Pruitt pledged to ‘restore’ the EPA to its original mission of protecting human health and the environment. He failed, and his many ethical problems shouldn’t obscure that fact. Americans are less safe than they should be today, due to his poor decisions and leadership.

“We call on the president to clean up the toxic mess he made at the EPA by appointing Scott Pruitt. Republican President Richard Nixon, who created the EPA, understood that we needed to keep our air and water clean, and administrations from both parties have upheld that vision over the ensuing half-century. President Trump needs to nominate someone who will protect human health and the environment so that the EPA can truly succeed in its mission.”