Backstabber Watch

Investigative reporter Sharon Lerner explains how 270,000 pounds of the chemical ethylene oxide vanished from the public record.

The Trump administration is scrambling to wrap up a slew of environmental rollbacks before President-elect Joe Biden takes office in less than 70 days.

The agency said it would not penalize companies that violate rules on monitoring and reporting pollution discharges.  

EPA chief Scott Pruitt may still be clinging to his job despite his ever-expanding list of controversies, but his inner circle of allies is shrinking fast.

Since April, seven key EPA staffers have resigned, four of whom had once worked for him or were longtime friends he brought to the EPA from Oklahoma. And while not directly affiliated with the EPA, Senator James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican who has been a key ally of Pruitt’s, recently revealed some cracks in his support. On Wednesday, when Fox News personality Laura Ingraham observed that Pruitt was “hurting the president”and it was time for him to go, Inhofe replied,“I’ve seen these things. They upset me as much as they upset you, and I think something needs to happen to change that.” He suggested that one solution “would be for him to leave that job,” and that the deputy EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler “might be a good swap.”

An investigation finds the federal agency is not accounting for the cumulative health effect of chemicals as required by law. Such neglect leaves consumers at higher risk for chronic diseases.

He also used his platform to say the agency would focus less on preventive measures that stop pollution, but concentrate on the cleanup of toxic areas.

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace said Friday that the Republican Party “sucks” while discussing why former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Scott Pruitt lasted so long in the Trump administration despite multiple scandals.

While hosting a segment on MSNBC’s “Deadline” on Friday evening, Wallace pressed former CIA agent and 2016 independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin over the GOP's inaction on Pruitt amid multiple controversies.