Why Risk To Children’s Nervous Systems Is A Sensible Trade-Off July 5, 2017July 2, 2017 From the indispensable New York Times: Counseled by Industry, Not Staff, E.P.A. Chief Is Off to a Blazing Start WASHINGTON — In the four months since he took office as the Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator, Scott Pruitt has moved to undo, delay or otherwise block more than 30 environmental rules, a regulatory rollback larger in scope than any other over so short a time in the agency’s 47-year history . . . . . . And he is doing all this largely without the input of the 15,000 career employees at the agency he heads, according to interviews with over 20 current and former E.P.A. senior career staff members. . . . . . . Instead, Mr. Pruitt has outsourced crucial work to a network of lawyers, lobbyists and other allies, especially Republican state attorneys general, a network he worked with closely as the head of the Republican Attorneys General Association. Since 2013, the group has collected $4.2 million from fossil fuel-related companies . . . businesses that also worked closely with Mr. Pruitt in many of the 14 lawsuits he filed against the E.P.A. . . . Mr. Pruitt’s supporters, including President Trump, have hailed his moves as an uprooting of the administrative state and a clearing of onerous regulations that have stymied American business. Environmental advocates have watched in horror . . . Mr. Pruitt, a former Oklahoma attorney general who built a career out of suing the agency he now leads, is moving effectively to dismantle the regulations and international agreements that stood as a cornerstone of President Barack Obama’s legacy. . . . . . . [even] reversed a ban on the use of a pesticide that the E.P.A.’s own scientists have said is linked to damage of children’s nervous systems . . . But as the White House Spokesperson explained in a different context last week, the American people knew what they were getting when they elected Trump “overwhelmingly.” And think of it this way: sure, some children may suffer damage to their nervous systems. But thanks to Trump and the Republican Congress, those kids and all the rest of us will shortly have great health care at a tiny fraction of the cost. So it shouldn’t be hard to fix them.