Scott Pruitt Being Sued Because He’s Absolutely Clueless

Scott Pruitt and the EPA are being sued for ignoring Air Pollution standards, and this lawsuit could force the agency to stop destroying our air. Ring of Fire's Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins discuss this.

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Scott Pruitt and the EPA are being sued for ignoring air pollution standards and this lawsuit could force the agency to stop destroying our air. Or at least save what we can. Look, it's another Pruitt story.

Except it's one that matters.

It's one that really does matter.

Yeah.

This is important. Well, I think all of the Pruitt stories matter. Even the Pruitt story where we learned that the lobbyist were letting him live for a fraction of what they should be charging for the condo that he was living in, and then we find out, oh, by the way, Pruitt has been approached and actually has done some of the things that these lobbyists have asked him to do. Pruitt is a thug. He's just absolutely a thug. But here we've got a good lawsuit because it's in the form of a writ of mandamus. He's being ordered to do what he knows he's supposed to do and his failure to do that, it makes it into a viable lawsuit. These kinds of cases have become very effective lately. This complaint was filed in Northern District of California.

We're seeing more and more of these lawsuits that are called writ of mandamus, writ of prohibition. Writ of prohibition is you're doing something you shouldn't be doing and you need to stop. Writ of mandamus is you've been ordered to do something and you're not doing it, and now you need to start over again.

So, that's what this lawsuit centers around. Farron?

Yeah. You know, back during the Bush years, the US Supreme Court, because the EPA back then had been sued because they were not enacting anything from the Clean Air Act, which is exactly what Scott Pruitt is basically being accused of here, and the US Supreme Court at the time, controlled by Conservatives, said, "Hey, you have to do this, EPA. You cannot not do your job."

This lawsuit is trying to do the same thing. It's saying that Scott Pruitt is not enacting the safe levels for things like sulfur dioxide pollution, which we know increases hospitalizations, deaths, all kinds of respiratory diseases, it hurts the forests, and streams, and water, causes acid rain. Scott Pruitt, when he came in office, said, "We're not going to worry about that anymore. We're not going to do our studies. We're not going to look into the areas that have high levels of sulfur dioxide pollution anymore. We're not going to record it because we don't really care because the polluters are our good buddies."

Now-

It's the same thing [inaudible 00:02:32] climate change.

Right.

Last week, we have another story, and he wants to cover up ... Interesting point. This is such a crazy story. Pruitt comes out and says, "I have proof. I have it right here in my back pocket. I got proof that shows unequivocally that there's no such thing as climate change. He sued and he says, "Listen, you want to show us this because everything we're looking at, it shows just the opposite." He says, "Well, I don't really want to hand it over," because why? Because he doesn't have it. Because he was lying about it.

But, again, it was an environment group that said, "We got to do what we got to do. He said this to the American public. This is what he is basing his entire administration on. So, Scott, how about showing us this material?" He says, "Ah, I don't want to do that," because he doesn't have it.

Well, I'll tell you, look, the entire time we've been doing Ring of Fire here, I honestly can say I don't know that I have ever seen any government official or any at least department head that we have ever had to cover that is as scandalous and corrupt and incompetent as Scott Pruitt.

How long does he stay? Give me your take. What does it take for Trump to say, "This guy is such a cancer." Trump's got so many cancers on his administration, but this guy stands out, is like a big old tumor right on Trump's forehead. At what time does he say, "You know, I got to get rid of him."