By Justin Wingerter Staff Writer jwingerter@oklahoman.com
Critics and supporters of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt have found common ground in their shared belief that the former Oklahoma attorney general is operating with an efficiency and zeal beyond that of his predecessors.
“There's a tremendous amount of attention and a tremendous amount of focus that's going into our agenda and the president has given us that charge,” Pruitt said during an interview Thursday.
In February, Pruitt took over a federal agency that had, in his words, “lost its moorings.” He has compared disdain of the EPA to that directed at the Internal Revenue Service and told a conservative gathering that critics of the agency were justified in their scorn.
“What people are justified feeling is the oppressiveness and the paternalism and the use of regulatory power to pick winners and losers,” Pruitt said Thursday.
The ardor with which Pruitt set out to change an agency of 15,000 employees with a budget of $8 billion has made him a polarizing figure, beloved by industrialists and despised by environmentalists.
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