It's Friday, July 6th, 2018, and you're listening to Up to Date. I'm Indyvis Gontas.

I'm Kishore Hari. Happy Scott Pruitt got fired yesterday. Yes. Yes, that does seem big news.

I mean, you know, we've been hearing all about his egregious behavior for weeks and it didn't,

you know, it didn't occur to me that that might actually lead to his firing, given that it's not like it's new news. Well, let's, I think we should pump the

breaks on celebrating. Now, I will say, and pardon me for editorializing for a second,

Scott Pruitt was the worst. And I say that, forget about the science for a second. He was embroiled

in 19 separate investigations into ethics of second. He was embroiled in 19 separate investigations

into ethics of violations. Even if you are a fan of the policy work he was doing, he was bringing

a lot of shame and general sense of corruption to an administration that needs no more scandals

at this point. So at best, he was a

distraction. At worst, he was one of the most corrupt officials we've seen in years. Well, to celebrate

his departure, I actually have a story that in part uses data collected by the EPA.

Well, before that, we should say one thing. Just because Scott Pruitt got fired doesn't mean that

all is well in the world. His replacement, Andrew Wheeler, is a coal lobbyist. So don't expect much

policy to change over time. I would say the only real benefit we're going to see in the short term

is the fact that morale at the EPA won't crater from, you know, where it is at all

time lows, that we may be able to keep some long-time EPA scientists on board for a while

longer as just sort of the tone and tenor of the organization comes down. But we aren't re-entering

Paris anytime soon. Now, you have a pollution study?

Yes, which of course makes the coal mining leader.

Even more interesting.

This might be the last time we can use EPA data to find a link between pollution and something bad for humanity.

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