WASHINGTON (AP) – The Trump administration’s top environmental official met privately with the chief executive of Dow Chemical shortly before reversing his agency’s push to ban a widely used pesticide after health studies showed it can harm children’s brains, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s schedule shows he met with Dow CEO Andrew Liveris for about a half hour on March 9 during a conference held at a Houston hotel. Twenty days later Pruitt announced his decision to deny a petition to ban Dow’s chlorpyrifos pesticide from being sprayed on food, despite a review by his agency’s scientists that concluded ingesting even minuscule amounts of the chemical can interfere with the brain development of fetuses and infants.
EPA released a copy of Pruitt’s March meeting schedule earlier this month following several Freedom of Information Act requests.
Asked by the AP in April whether Pruitt had meet with Dow executives or lobbyists before his decision, EPA spokesman J.P. Freire replied: “We have had no meetings with Dow on this topic.”
EPA did not respond this week to questions about what Pruitt and Liveris did discuss during their March 9 meeting, or whether the two had also met on other occasions.