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Ernst says EPA’s Pruitt is a ‘swampy’ liar

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June 14th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

Republican Senator Joni Ernst is calling for a senate hearing “on E-P-A Administrator Scott Pruitt’s scandals.” Ernst says she appreciates “some” of the regulatory changes Pruitt has made. “But I’ve got some real heartburn over the fact that he has been undermining the RFS,” Ernst said. “I’ve called him a liar. What he put on paper to me, he is not standing by.” Pruitt served as attorney general in oil-rich Oklahoma and Ernst says he has repeatedly failed to follow through on the president’s promises on the federal ethanol production mandate. Ernst opposes the so-called “hardship” waivers Pruitt recently has granted, exempting oil refineries from the federal requirement to blend ethanol into gasoline.  “He’s got a long ways to go to repair any damage he’s done in our relationship,” Ernst said, “what little there was.”

According to Ernst, Pruitt “is about as swampy” as it gets. “He is swampy and we’re trying to drain the swamp, right? Ernst asked rhetorically. “So even outside of the RFS and the fact that we do not agree on the RFS, there are a lot of other transgressions out there that Scott Pruitt has had that the American taxpayer does not appreciate.”

The Washington Post reported Pruitt asked E-P-A staff and political donors to find his wife a job, That prompted Republicans like Ernst to call on Pruitt to testify before the senate about those actions, as well as his lavish office spending, first-class travel and private security paid for by taxpayers.

(Radio Iowa)