Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Understanding the President’s Cabinet: EPA Administrator
Understanding the President’s Cabinet: EPA Administrator
Jan 28, 2026 3:44 AM

Note: This is the post #24 in a weekly series of explanatory posts on the officials and agencies included in the President’s Cabinet. See the series introductionhere.

Cabinet position:EPA Administrator

Department:U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Current Administrator:Scott Pruitt

Department Mission:The mission of EPA is to protect human health and the environment. EPA’s purpose is to ensure that:

all Americans are protected from significant risks to human health and the environment where they live, learn and work;national efforts to reduce environmental risk are based on the best available scientific information;federal laws protecting human health and the environment are enforced fairly and effectively;environmental protection is an integral consideration in U.S. policies concerning natural resources, human health, economic growth, energy, transportation, agriculture, industry, and international trade, and these factors are similarly considered in establishing environmental policy;all parts of society munities, individuals, businesses, and state, local and tribal governments — have access to accurate information sufficient to effectively participate in managing human health and environmental risks;environmental protection contributes to making munities and ecosystems diverse, sustainable and economically productive; andthe United States plays a leadership role in working with other nations to protect the global environment.

Department Budget:$8,058,488,000 (FY 2017)

Number of employees:15,408

Primary Duties of the Administrator:Responsible formaintaining and enforcing national environmental laws and advising the president onenvironment related issues.

Administrator Info

Administrator:Scott Pruitt

Previous occupation:Attorney General for Oklahoma.

Education:BA in political science munications from Georgetown College (KY) and J.D. from University of Tulsa College of Law.

Previous government experience:Served eight years in the Oklahoma State Senate.

Religious Affiliation:Baptist

Notable achievements:

• Was co-owner and the managing general partner of the Oklahoma City RedHawks, a AAA minor league baseball team.

•As Oklahoma Attorney General, he sued the EPA 14 times.

Previous and ing posts in this series:Vice President,Secretary of State,Secretary of the Treasury,Secretary of Education, Secretary of Labor,Secretary of Defense,Attorney General,Secretary of the Interior,Secretary of Agriculture,Secretary of Commerce,Secretary of Health and Human Services,Secretary of Housing and Urban Development,Secretary of Transportation,Secretary of Energy,Secretary of Veterans Affairs,Secretary of Homeland Security,White House Chief of Staff,U.S. Trade Representative,Director of National Intelligence,Representative of the United States to the United Nations,Director of the Office of Management and Budget,Director of the Central Intelligence Agency,Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency,Administrator of the Small Business Administration

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Happiness, work, and the eternal quest for meaning
In my cautionary post on the constant temptation to indulge in earthbound economics, I mentioned that even seemingly noble, intangible features such as “happiness” can be just as futile and vain when pursued on our own terms and for our own limited purposes. If we don’t order and define things properly, the “pursuit of happiness” can easilydistract us away from our eternal quest for widespread spiritual transformation. As the author of Ecclesiastes points out, when “testing ourselves” with mere pleasure—even...
Amity Shlaes on ‘The Good Rich’ and the Folly of Philanthropy
In a new book, The Good Rich and What They Cost Us, Robert Dalzell Jr. aims to address “a great paradox at the core of the American Dream: a passionate belief in the principles of bined with an equally passionate celebration of wealth.” In a review for the Wall Street Journal, Amity Shlaes notes that although the book provides an in-depth look at the history of American philanthropy, the author’s own personal prescriptions lend too high a trust to government...
The Idle Ents
You’re part of this world, aren’t you? A tree-herder should know better! Last week I had the pleasure of participating in the First Kuyper Seminar, “Economics, Christianity & The Crisis: Towards a New Architectonic Critique,” held at the VU University Amsterdam. I gave a paper on “The Moral Challenges of Economic Equality and Diversity,” which focused on envy as a moral challenge particularly endemic to market economies: “Since envy arises out of inequality, envy and inequality go together. And since...
Debating Food Equality in New York
The Food Bank For New York recently released their annual report on the state of hunger in the city and the growing disparity between e New Yorkers and New York City’s professional class. The report refers to this disparity as the food “haves” and “have nots.” The report, “NYC Hunger Experience 2012: One City, Two Realities,” was released Tuesday at the 21st annual Agency Conference. The New York Non-Profit Press summarized the key findings: Almost one in three New York...
The Audacity of Irony: Obama and “Religious Freedom Day”
Yesterday, while his lawyers were busy defending against charges that the Obama administration violated the religious freedoms of his fellow citizens, President Obama was designating January 17 as Religious Freedom Day. The author of the The Audacity of Hope has the audacity to hope that Americans will not snicker at the idea that he’s a defender of religious liberty. In his proclamation, Obama says, Today, we also remember that religious liberty is not just an American right; it is a...
We Should Affirm All Callings—Even Pastoral Ones
The winter issue of Leadership Journal is on vocation and callings. In the lead editorial, managing editor Drew Dyck reminds us that while it’s important to affirm the calling of lawyers, journalists, and plumbers, we need to remember that being a pastor is a calling too: I applaud this move toward a more holistic understanding of vocation. I’ve seen numerous books on the topic published in the past few years. Conferences are springing up. What’s most heartening is to see...
Commentary: Hollywood 2012: What Messages are the Movies Sending Us?
“If I had cash to spend on promoting the values and ideas and policies that I believed were best for this country, you can bet that I would be out finding talented directors, writers, and producers who shared those values,” writes R.J. Moeller. The full text of his essay follows. Subscribe to the free, weekly Acton News & Commentary and other publicationshere. Hollywood 2012: What messages are the movies sending us? byR.J. Moeller The list ofthe twenty-five top-grossing films(worldwide) of...
A Cookie for Me, But Not for Thee
There are some amazing economic and moral lessons, related to redistribution, zeo-sum fallacies, as well as virtue and desire, embedded in this Sesame Street video: Can you think of any other ways that both Ernie and Cookie Monster might have been able to be happy instead of sad? And what if the object in question weren’t a cookie, but instead something like an apple, perhaps? ...
Audio: Ray Nothstine on Gun Control
Ray Nothstine, managing editor of Religion & Liberty, was recently on Relevant Radio with Drew Mariani to discuss the issue of gun control. According to the Chicago Tribune: President Barack Obama unveiled a sweeping plan to reduce gun violence…that would require criminal background checks for all gun sales and a ban on military-style assault weapons. Obama also proposed an end to high-capacity ammunition clips, instead limiting clips to 10 rounds, according to details of the plan released by the White...
Audio: Samuel Gregg Discusses ‘Becoming Europe’ on Relevant Radio
Recently Samuel Gregg, was interviewed by Sheila Liaugminas of Relevant Radio. They discuss Gregg’s latest book, ing Europe. Listen to the interview here: [Audio: Michael Novak, author of The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, says this about the book: If you don’t know Samuel Gregg’s writing, you don’t know one of the top two or three writers on the free society today: free in its culture, free in its politics, and free in its economy. In this book, Gregg has produced...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved