East-central Missouri Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer says former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt took a common-sense approach to EPA regulations. Luetkemeyer, a Republican, goes on to tell Missourinet affiliate KWIX in Moberly that Pruitt “got crosswise” on a couple of issues.
Missouri 3rd District Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-St. Elizabeth)
“Right now, with the press and the opposition the way it is, if you don’t have everything just perfect, they come after you and they just try and destroy you as a person and a political leader. They went after him and they finally got him to the point where he got frustrated and threw his hands up and he said ‘To heck with it. I’m a distraction and not an asset,’” says Luetkemeyer.
Pruitt resigned last week following a list of things like controversial department spending, questionable housing arrangements and the hiring of a security team.
Pruitt ended controversial clean water regulations known as the Waters of the U.S. rule and other Obama-era environmental restrictions.
“I’m not against EPA regulations but I am against EPA regulations that are going to cost more than the benefit it’s going to deliver. He (Pruitt) took a more common-sense approach to regulation and I thought he did a good job.”
Pruitt also announced this year a nuclear waste contamination cleanup plan for the West Lake landfill in the St. Louis region. The agency went more than twenty years without making a decision about how to address the superfund site. He sought a freeze on fuel economy standards and changed environmental regulations that favored the fossil fuel industry. He also supported the lowering of mandated levels of corn ethanol in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
Deputy EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler has assumed the duties of acting administrator.