Saboteur in charge of protecting environment

Lavish travel for fossil fuel companies, expensive personal security, exorbitant raises for pet employees, a $43,000 sound-proof booth, and energy lobbyist housing-It would seem these offenses alone would disqualify Scott Pruitt from heading the EPA,

Far more worrisome is Pruitt's management of the Environmental Protection Agency, created in the 70s by the Nixon Administration to clean the country's air and water after oil dumping caused the Cuyahoga River to catch on fire. Despite Sarah Sanders' assertion that Scott Pruitt is returning to the original mission of the EPA, Pruitt has instead gutted the agency, cutting funding and staff, especially research scientists. He has prevented enforcement of regulations for cool ash disposal, rolled back clean car and truck standards, ignored chemical dumping- all to favor fossil fuel and chemical companies above the health and economic well-being of ordinary Americans.

We face the existential threat of climate change, but Pruitt erased the words from the agency's website as if climate change would go away if we pretended it did not exist. We signed the Clean Power Plan, but Pruitt removed the plan from the agency's website.

While we hide from the truth, other countries, notably China, Germany and the Scandinavian countries, are using solar and wind energies to create health and wealth. Eclipsing fossil fuel job growth, more gigawatts of new solar and wind were installed in the world in 2017 than all additions of coal, gas and nuclear plants combined. Consider the benefit to our country if our government gave as much support to clean energy as we give to fossil fuel companies that continue to irresponsibly poison our air and waterways.

Rather than check these companies for their environmental crimes, Pruitt supports their 19th century agendas, We need a protector, not a saboteur, for the 21st Century Environment Protection Agency.

Susan Spengler

Palatine