The New York Times has taken a look at the Outlook calendar of Scott Pruitt, the science-denying former Oklahoma attorney general whose penchant for suing the living hell out of President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency naturally earned him the right to lead that agency under President Trump. If his battery of mediocre power lunches with industry lobbyists and corporate donors to the Trump campaign is any indication, the man has been working around the clock for the last seven months to grind the EPA's substantive mission into a fine powder, probably laced with the freshest and least sustainable brand of coal that this great country has to offer.

From the Times:

Since taking office in February, Mr. Trump’s E.P.A. chief has held back-to-back meetings, briefing sessions and speaking engagements almost daily with top corporate executives and lobbyists from all the major economic sectors that he regulates—and almost no meetings with environmental groups or consumer or public health advocates, according to a 320-page accounting of his daily schedule from February through May.

The Times goes on to note that many of the captains of industry with whom Pruitt has been meeting are the same ones with whom he partnered while fighting the EPA back in Oklahoma. Those dinners sound like some high-fiving, back-slapping, climate-change-celebrating fun. Cheers to Scott, whose successful hijacking of the regulatory entity he hates has removed meaningful oversight from our operations, leaving us free to hollow out the Earth as soon as physically possible. Now, should we get the beef tartare?

In just the first 15 days of May, Mr. Pruitt met with the chief executive of the Chemours Company, a leading chemical maker, as well as three chemical lobbying groups; the egg producers lobby; the president of Shell Oil Company; the chief executive of Southern Company; lobbyists for the farm bureau, the toy association and a cement association; the president of a truck equipment manufacturer seeking to roll back emissions regulations for trucks; and the president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

Pruitt's schedule also indicates that he's been taking some liberties with his allowable travel expenses, because apparently everyone in the Trump administration thinks that one of the myriad privileges of being Cabinet member is keeping a charter jet service on speed dial. The EPA's inspector general is reportedly taking a hard look at Pruitt's business trips, many of which just happen to be clustered near his home in Oklahoma and scheduled on a weekend.