I’m Bill Moyers, here with a horror story
a story of corruption so daring, so devious
and so dangerous it could kill you.
It could poison your drinking water,
contaminate your neighborhood
and make your children very, very sick.
Let’s begin with a television commercial
that I chanced to see on CNN during Donald
Trump’s inaugural weekend.
Take a look.
The US Senate will vote
to confirm Scott Pruitt to lead
the Environmental Protection Agency.
He’ll use transparent, smart,
regulations to protect our air and water
without stifling development of
America’s abundant natural resources.
That’s an ad sponsored by one of the biggest and
most powerful trade associations in the country
– the National Association of Manufacturers.
The NAM ran three ads like it during inaugural week.
All of them aimed at bringing public
pressure to bear on the U.S. Senate
to confirm Scott Pruitt as head
of the Environmental Protection Agency.
And just who, you might ask, is Scott Pruitt?
It is an honor and a privilege
to be before you today to be considered
for the position of EPA Administrator.
Pruitt is Oklahoma’s attorney general.
His salary of more than $260,000 is paid
by taxpayers, but Pruitt really works for
the energy industry.
He’s a political profiteer whose career
in public office is built on taking money
from corporations and doing their bidding.
It appears that a great deal of your
fundraising comes from these organizations
who are in the energy sector and
devoted to fighting climate change.
At Pruitt’s recent confirmation
hearings before Congress, Sen. Sheldon
Whitehouse of Rhode Island tried to
unravel the web of corporate influence
around Scott Pruitt.
Devon Energy, Koch Industries,
Exxon Mobil have all maxed out
to that account, at various times.
I’m not aware if they have maxed out
or not senator, but I’m sure that they
have given to that committee.
Now, take a look at this letter.
In 2011 the Environmental Protection
Agency was trying to limit methane gas
leaking from drilling operations
like that of Devon Energy, one of those
oil and gas companies that donate to him.
Pruitt wrote the EPA on behalf of the company
Turns out the letter was drafted, almost
to the word, by lawyers for Devon Energy.
That is the letter on my letterhead
that was sent to the EPA, yes. With respect to the issue—
SENATOR JEFF MERKLEY (D-OR): Do you acknowledge
that 97% of words in that letter came directly from Devon Energy?
I have not looked at the percentages, sir.
You used your office as a direct extension of an oil company,
rather than a direct extension of the interests of the public health of the
people of Oklahoma.
Something else: As attorney general Scott Pruitt has sued the
Environmental Protection Agency 14 times.
Most of the suits failed. But that didn’t deter Pruitt or his donors
So why does Donald Trump want a lackey for the big energy companies
to run the agency charged with protecting the public from pollution?
And why did the National Association of Manufacturers run ads like this for a man
so obviously not a defender of the public interest?
Because Trump and the industry can count Pruitt on their side,
as his record shows, in preventing the EPA from holding big business
accountable for the environment and public safety.
After all, when he became attorney general of Oklahoma,
he shut down the state’s environmental enforcement unit.
Honestly, people are going to think that it's not
just the fox guarding the hen house, it’s the fox destroying the hen house
because you haven’t distanced yourself from the actual litigation
that you have initiated on most of the key issues that you are now going to
have responsibility for protecting
in terms of the public health of the entire country.
And senator I can say to you unequivocally, I will recuse as directed
by EPA ethics counsel.
Scott Pruitt fits right into Trump’s world.
In his first week in office Donald Trump has aimed a sledgehammer at the EPA.
Within hours of his swearing in, he ordered a freeze on all new
environmental rules pending review, suspended all Federal environmental
grants and contracts, thus stalling billions of dollars that were heading
to key operations like air pollution monitoring, water
quality testing, and environmental research.
Then he ordered all outward communication from the EPA to stop –
no social media, no conferences, no meetings between
the agency and the public.
So if you want to know if there’s work being done to clean up a superfund site,
too bad.
If you want to know the role of fracking in Oklahoma’s earthquakes, sorry.
Whether the emissions of an industry in your hometown comply with federal
safety laws? You’ll have to guess.
And there’s more. He’s opposed climate science.
As I indicated in my opening statement, the climate is changing
and human activity contributes to that in some manner.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT): In some manner?
97% of the scientists who wrote articles in peer-reviewed journals believe
that human activity is the fundamental reason we are seeing climate change,
you disagree with that?
I believe the ability to measure with precision, the degree of human
activities’ impact on the climate, is subject to more debate on whether the
climate is changing or whether human activity contributes to it.
We should remember that Richard Nixon, a Republican president,
signed the legislation creating the Environmental Protection Agency
back in 1970.
It was part of the movement to restore a country that had been despoiled
by industrial abuse.
The environmental agenda now before the Congress
includes laws to deal with water pollution, pesticide hazards,
ocean dumping, excessive noise, careless land development, and many other
environmental problems.
These problems will not stand still for politics or for partisanship.
Trump’s wrecking crew says environmental regulations impede the
progress and profits of companies.
But if you think those companies and their so-called “free market” will,
without safety provisions, make America great again?
Well here is what turning back the clock could look like
These are the EPA’s own photographs
taken for the record
as the agency began its work.
Rivers were polluted.
Lead gasoline threatened
the developing brains of children.
Trash choked harbors
and illegal dumping
leached into groundwater,
agricultural run off
suffocated marine waterways.
Unfettered industries
were running our country to ruin.
There, before your eyes, is our past.
It’s no wonder the founders of our government feared corruption
in high office. They knew it could lead to bribery, nepotism, and the
abuse of power by a government aligned with the great monied interests
— such as the East India Tea Company.
They knew it could enable public officials to neglect their obligation to the
public and serve instead the design of wealth.
At the end of the first week of Donald Trump’s first hundred days,
those founders must be turning in their graves.