Let us speak once again of energy industry finger-puppet Scott Pruitt, currently in charge of making sure that the Environmental Protection Agency does everything except protect the environment. (And yes, brave truth-tellers Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, and John McCain, we must speak of him because y’all voted to confirm this jamoke.) We mentioned a while back that Pruitt had embarked on a campaign to de-science the agency, and that he was looking for every possible place within it to do that.

One way, we noted, was to remove from the EPA advisory panels any scientists who receive grants from the EPA. These, we suspect, will be replaced by more than a few of Pruitt’s longtime pals from America’s major polluting corporations. But Pruitt, as Buzzfeed reports, has found a loophole through which to escape criticism for so obvious a ploy. That loophole is called…the Bible.

Pruitt used a story from the Book of Joshua to help explain the new policy. On the journey to the promised land, "Joshua says to the people of Israel: choose this day whom you are going to serve," Pruitt said. "This is sort of like the Joshua principle — that as it relates to grants from this agency, you are going to have to choose either service on the committee to provide counsel to us in an independent fashion or choose the grant. But you can’t do both. That’s the fair and great thing to do."

Actually, it’s a fairly idiotic thing to do unless, of course, you are trying to render the EPA both toothless and comatose as an effective federal agency. Still, though, if we’re going to govern out of the Book of Joshua, maybe Pruitt can find a way to make the sun stand still. Be a great boon to the solar power industry, I’d imagine. Come to think of it, that might not fly with him.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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