It's not particularly surprising that the Environmental Protection Agency, now under the direction of Scott Pruitt, would lurch toward indifference to actual environmental concerns. The extent to which Pruitt has turned the agency's public statements into a Breitbart-style fake news and outrage factory, though: that's a level of childishness and propaganda-peddling more suitable for a banana republic than, well, whatever we here in the United States once aspired to.
This degradation has been on full display in the agency's official responses to an AP report noting that the EPA had yet to dispatch teams to survey any of the Superfund sites affected by catastrophic Harvey flooding.
The next day the EPA followed up with an even more accusatory press release. Without challenging any of the facts in the AP report, the release attacked one of the bylined reporters, Michael Biesecker, personally: [...]
Attempting to further discredit Biesecker’s previous reporting, the EPA release went on to cite Breitbart and the Oklahoman‘s editorial board. Breitbart, where Trump’s ex-adviser Steve Bannon has returned to the helm, followed up on the AP-bashing press release, calling the report “fake news.” What the unsigned EPA release didn’t mention was that AP had reporters on the ground assessing the damage, and that the agency had actually confirmed to the AP that its teams hadn’t yet assessed the 11 flooded Superfund sites in person.
This has been part of a pattern of Pruitt cozying up to Breitbart reporters, and the two teams swapping talking points, despite Breitbart being one of the most notorious purveyors of both (1) white nationalist rhetoric and (2) false "news" stories out there. (And by "despite," we probably mean "because of.") Pruitt has also dodged legitimate press outlets since day one on the job, suggesting he doesn't have much faith he can answer any questions not posed to him by hard-right soulmates. That cowardice has not escaped notice.
This isn't a sustainable plan. Certainly, Pruitt can dodge the press and certainly, he can force his agency to publish dishonest and misleading "news" defending the agency while, behind the scenes, he and his new staff putter away dismantling things or dodging agency responsibilities—but at some point, the agency will either be doing its duties or it won't be, and if the EPA bungles its responsibilities under Pruitt it will be visible, be reported on, and Pruitt will have to explain himself. Relying on systemic propaganda to hide what he's doing will delay that day of reckoning, but it won't stop it.
You would expect anyone who has been elevated to such a high-ranking position would intrinsically understand such notions, but the Republican Party has done its level best to promote belligerence over competence, this last decade. There seems to be quite a few things people like Scott Pruitt don't understand.