How to make Scott Prutt do his EPA job

Salon - There’s a way that environmental activists or state and local elected officials can fight back and force Pruitt to do the work the EPA head is supposed to do: Sue him. Federal law clearly says the EPA is supposed to protect the environment; if Pruitt doesn’t want to do that, the courts have both a right and an obligation to force him to.

This week, the strategy of suing Pruitt into doing his job met with a significant victory. The U.S. Court of Appeals in the D.C. circuit has ruled that Pruitt cannot delay the implementation of a rule written during the Obama years that requires energy companies to limit methane emissions from equipment leaks.

This decision is important in itself, but it’s much more significant for its larger implication, which is that the courts can put serious limits on Pruitt’s efforts to undermine the EPA’s mission from the inside.