President Trump may have vowed to “drain the swamp” of Washington’s political insiders, but his U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Scott Pruitt, prefers to dive right in with them. The New York Times reports that since arriving in the nation’s capital, the former Oklahoma attorney general has busily convened private meetings and dined at pricey restaurants with top executives, lobbyists, and trade associations for the polluting industries he is supposed to be regulating. Tellingly, while Pruitt has rolled out the red carpet for fossil fuel interests, chemical companies, and automakers, such hospitality has not been extended to environmentalists, consumer groups, and public health advocates.
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