type: timeline_event
Scott Pruitt, who sued the EPA 14 times as Oklahoma Attorney General while taking 00,000+ from fossil fuel companies, became EPA Administrator and immediately began dismantling environmental protections. He installed a 3,000 soundproof phone booth, took 30+ first-class flights costing taxpayers 63,000, and lived in a 0/night condo owned by an energy lobbyist. Pruitt reversed the Clean Power Plan, withdrew from the Paris Agreement, rolled back 82+ environmental regulations, and fired EPA scientists while hiring industry consultants. He resigned under 14 federal investigations but his successor Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, continued the deregulation agenda. EPA enforcement dropped 72% and criminal prosecutions hit a 30-year low.