A whole new level
A key aide to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has been granted permission to make extra money moonlighting for private clients whose identities are being kept secret.
A letter approving outside employment contracts for John Konkus — signed by an EPA ethics lawyer in August — was released Monday by Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The ethics official noted that Konkus’ outside contracts presented a “financial conflict of interest” and barred him from participating in matters at EPA that would have a “direct and predictable” financial benefit for his clients.
Norm Eisen said on Twitter that he didn’t even let people do outside work for non-profits when he was Obama’s ethics honcho.
The Washington Post reported in September that Konkus had been scrutinizing grant applications for mentions of climate change, which he reportedly referred to as “the double C-word.”
That’s in line with statements by Pruitt, who as the administration’s top environmental official has embraced a pro-fossil-fuel agenda while questioning climate science showing that global warming is primarily caused by man-made carbon emissions.
House Democrats decried what they called the politicization of the EPA’s grants-making process in a letter sent to Pruitt on Monday.
“A political appointee cutting millions of dollars in funding to EPA grant recipients on what appears to be a politically motivated basis, while at the same time being authorized to serve as a paid media consultant to unnamed outside clients, raises serious concerns of potential conflicts of interest,” said the letter. Signatories included Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee.
I guess Republicans have an edge in ignoring conflicts of interest, since they think profit is sacred and thus holy and thus incapable of involving corruption.
Environmentalists said Monday that the agency’s lack of transparency about the private payments to EPA staff on the public’s payroll raises concerns about whom they are really working for.
“The American people already know that Scott Pruitt is working for corporate polluters and not for them, but the revelation that his staff is moonlighting for private clients while working at the EPA full-time brings suspicions of pay-to-play to a whole new level,” said Melinda Pierce, the legislative director of the Sierra Club. “And if Konkus is not working for polluters directly, the public is forced to ask whether he is running a partisan political operation from within the agency instead.”
#swamp
Why not? That’s what this entire administration is about, transferring money from everyone else into the hands of administration personnel. If Trump likes ’em, they get to make money from their positions. If he doesn’t like ’em, well, he’ll just scream “You’re fired!” and wait for the applause from the audience.
Besides, who needs an environment? The environment is icky and nasty and not covered in faux gold. It’s all green and dirt and animals that poop and stuff. Cover it with gold, and it will be so, so much nicer.
Have I said today that I hate this man? (Pruitt? Trump? Take your pick, I hate ’em both).
“Cover it with gold…”
Except for the bits that are golf courses.