In response to Scott Pruitt’s resignation from the Environmental Protection Agency, People For the American Way Executive Vice President Marge Baker issued the following statement.

“Scott Pruitt’s long, cynical record of favoring corporate interests over the American people’s wellbeing went hand in hand with his numerous ethics violations and his apparent disregard for legal norms as head of the EPA. Both parts of that record made him unfit for the office he held. During his year and a half in Washington, he has rolled back public health protections and used American tax dollars for his own personal luxuries and gain.

“Cronyism, self-enrichment and financial corruption have no place in the American political system. Scott Pruitt is just another ideologue cherry-picked by Trump for his extremist views, and his resignation today is long overdue. The American people deserve leaders who look out for their interests instead of the corporations they purport to regulate. Congress needs to step up to ensure not just that his successor, unlike Pruitt, is a person of integrity,  but that whoever leads the EPA believes in science and is committed first and foremost to protecting our air and water, not the bottom line of corporate allies.”

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