News item: It seems that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt regularly flies first class or on charters for routine business. The Washington Post reported that, during a period of only a few days last June, Pruitt had cost taxpayers over $90,000 in travel expenses flying from Washington, DC to New York City to Cincinnati, and then to Rome.

According to the Post,

Federal regulations state that government travelers are required to “exercise the same care in incurring expenses that a prudent person would exercise if traveling on personal business . . . and therefore, should consider the least expensive class of travel that meets their needs.” Agencies are allowed to authorize first-class travel in rare instances, such as a flight of 14 hours or more, a medical disability or when “exceptional security circumstances” mean “use of coach class accommodations would endanger your life or government property.”

Scott Pruitt

Apparently Pruitt uses the “exceptional security” exemption all the time.

After being silent for several days, the EPA responded by revealing that Pruitt needs the extra security to “avoid confrontations with angry individuals on planes and in airports.” Seems people regularly come up to him and yell things like, “‘Scott Pruitt, you’re f—ing up the environment,” as someone did in the Atlanta airport last October.

Wonder why this has never been a problem for previous EPA administrators? Not to make light of his plight, but seems like he could probably save us some money if he’d quit f—ing up the environment.

Out of sympathy for Mr. Pruitt, I offer the following limerick:

The EPA’s Pruitt, alas,
Could only fly up in first class.
In coach class, he knew,
Some boor such as you
Would probably call him an ass.

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And here’s the kind of incendiary tweet that makes people want to curse Pruitt out: