In his introductory speech to employees at the Environmental Protection Agency in D.C., newly minted administrator Scott Pruitt failed to mention either public health or climate change. He did mention the “toxic environment”—a reference not to his own history of collusion with the oil and gas industry when he was attorney general of Oklahoma, but to the widespread opposition to his appointment. That opposition included a letter 447 former EPA officials signed, bluntly stating, “Pruitt’s record and public statements strongly suggest that he does not agree with the underlying principles of our environmental laws.” 

Pruitt did, however, find an opportunity to quote Sierra Club founder John Muir: “Everyone needs beauty as well as bread, places to pray in and play in.” It’s a nice sentiment, from Muir’s 1912 book The Yosemite, but it’s pretty clear that Pruitt failed to read further in the passage. If he had, there is no way he would have gone there. 

The quote is from Chapter 16, “Hetch Hetchy Valley.” Muir loved the valley and called it the “Tuolomne Yosemite,” believing it to rival in beauty the better-known “Merced Yosemite.” At the time, however, Muir and the Sierra Club were battling the city of San Francisco, which was pursuing a “grossly destructive commercial scheme” to supply water for the city by damming the Tuolomne. (San Francisco ultimately prevailed, but there is still an ongoing effort to restore Hetch Hetchy.) Here is the full context of the quote: 

Advice to modern-day “despoiling gainseekers and mischief-makers” who would roll back environmental protections, ignore the threat of climate change, and disregard public health: You don’t want to make John Muir mad.