In this Feb. 12, 2018, photo, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt attends a meeting with state and local officials and President Donald Trump about infrastructure in the State Dining... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Feb. 12, 2018, photo, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt attends a meeting with state and local officials and President Donald Trump about infrastructure in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. Pruitt has broken months of silence about his frequent... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Feb. 12, 2018, photo, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt attends a meeting with state and local officials and President Donald Trump about infrastructure in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. Pruitt has broken months of silence about his frequent... (Associated Press) In this Feb. 12, 2018, photo, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt attends a meeting with state and local officials and President Donald Trump about infrastructure in the State Dining... (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Environmental Protection Agency has broken months of silence about his frequent premium-class flights at taxpayer expense, saying he needs to fly first class because of unpleasant interactions with other travelers. 
 
 EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt spoke about his flight costs on Tuesday in a pair of interviews in New Hampshire, following a first-class flight to meet with the state's Republican governor and tour a toxic waste site. 
 
 Pruitt told the New Hampshire Union Leader he had some "incidents" on flights shortly after his appointment by President Donald Trump last year. 
 
 "We live in a very toxic environment politically, particularly around issues of the environment," said Pruitt, who confirmed to the newspaper that he had flown first class from Washington to Boston before continuing on to New Hampshire. "We've reached the point where there's not much civility in the marketplace and it's created, you know, it's created some issues and the (security) detail, the level of protection is determined by the level of threat." 
 
 Pruitt is the first EPA administrator to have a 24-hour security detail that accompanies him at all times, even at the agency's headquarters in Washington. He has also taken other security precautions, including the addition of a $25,000 soundproof "privacy booth" to prevent eavesdropping on his phone calls and spending $3,000 to have his office swept for hidden listening devices. 
 
 Pruitt said he was not involved in the decision for him to fly first class. 
 
 "There have been instances, unfortunately, during my time as administrator, as I've flown and spent time, of interaction that's not been the best," Pruitt told WMUR TV in Manchester, New Hampshire. "And, so, ingress and egress off the plane ... that's all decisions all made by our (security) detail team, by the chief of staff, by the administration. I don't make any of those decisions. They place me on the plane where they think is best from a safety perspective." 
 
 Pruitt was asked about the issue following a Washington Post report on Sunday that detailed some of his travel expenses, including a $1,641.43 first-class seat for a short flight in June from Washington to New York City. Pruitt's ticket cost six times what EPA paid for his aides seated in coach. 
 
 The Associated Press reported in July and again in December that spending on commercial airline tickets purchased for Pruitt indicated he was flying in premium-class seats. EPA's press office has repeatedly refused to comment on whether Pruitt was flying first class. 
 
 Federal regulations allow government travelers to fly business class or first class when no cheaper options are "reasonably available" or if there are exceptional security circumstances. However, past federal audits have found that those rules have been routinely violated by high-ranking government officials under both Republican and Democratic administrations. 
 
 The use of luxury air travel by members of Trump's Cabinet has been under scrutiny for months, after the resignation of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price in September following media reports he spent at least $400,000 in taxpayer funds on private jets for himself and his staff. 
 
 A report released Wednesday by the inspector general at the Department of Veterans Affairs found that Secretary David Shulkin and his staff made "false representations" to justify his wife accompanying him at taxpayer expense on an 11-day European trip that mixed business and sightseeing. 
 
 Records show Pruitt has taken at least four flights on non-commercial aircraft, costing more than $58,000. EPA has said all of those flights were necessary and pre-approved by ethics lawyers. 
 
 EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox did not immediately respond Wednesday to questions about whether Pruitt had been granted similar waivers allowing him to fly premium class or about the past security incidents to which Pruitt referred. 
 
 Pruitt's frequent government-funded travel, which records show has often included weekend layovers in his home state of Oklahoma, is currently under review by EPA's internal watchdog. The office of EPA Inspector General Arthur Elkins said Wednesday it expects to release the results of its investigation by summer. 
 
 Meanwhile, the White House's budget proposal for EPA released earlier this week seeks to cut $3.7 million, or 9 percent, in funding for Elkins' office. His spokeswoman, Jennifer Kaplan, said that would impair the ability of the inspector general to perform investigations like the one into Pruitt's spending. 
 
 "Without sufficient resources, we would not be able to take on many discretionary audits and investigations that the OIG believes yield considerable value and return on investment," Kaplan said. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Follow AP environmental writer Michael Biesecker at http://Twitter.com/mbieseck ||||| EPA's Scott Pruitt flies 1st class to talk Superfund in NH 
 
 By MICHAEL COUSINEAU 
 
 New Hampshire Union Leader 
 
 EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt speaks with the New Hampshire Union Leader in Manchester on Tuesday. (DAVID LANE/UNION LEADER) EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt speaks with the New Hampshire Union Leader in Manchester on Tuesday. 
 
 — Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said security decisions made by others have dictated he fly first class or on military jets at taxpayer expense.“Unfortunately, ... we’ve had some incidents on travel dating back to when I first started serving in the March-April timeframe,” Pruitt said during an interview at the New Hampshire Union Leader on Tuesday.“We live in a very toxic environment politically, particularly around issues of the environment,” said Pruitt, who confirmed he flew first class from the Washington area to Boston to reach New Hampshire.“We’ve reached the point where there’s not much civility in the marketplace and it’s created, you know, it’s created some issues and the (security) detail, the level of protection is determined by the level of threat.” The Washington Post reported that taxpayers funded at least $90,000 for Pruitt and his top aides to fly during one stretch last June. It included first-class seats and a ride on a military jet, the newspaper reported.“I’m not involved in any of those decisions,” Pruitt said in his first interview since the report was published. “Those are all made by the (security) detail, the security assessment in addition to the chief of staff.”Pruitt questioned what the Obama administration accomplished environmentally.“Everybody looks at the past administration as being an environmental savior,” Pruitt said.He said 40 percent of the country lived in areas that didn’t meet air quality standards — covering 120 million Americans.“You had more sites on the Superfund list when they left office than when they came in,” Pruitt said. “Now, I just ask you, objectively: What did they do to improve the environment compared to what we’re doing?”Pruitt said he wants to get Superfund sites cleaned up more quickly than past administrations.Tom Irwin, vice president and New Hampshire director of the Conservation Law Foundation, said the Obama and Trump administrations differ on how they view science.“I think it’s fair to say the current administration in many ways is outright abandoning science,” Irwin said.Pruitt also met with Gov. Chris Sununu and visited Central Paper in Manchester Tuesday.“We discussed wide-ranging issues facing New Hampshire, and it is critical that our priorities are heard,” the governor said in a statement. “I was pleased to hear the EPA agreed to expedite the bedrock water table testing to further ensure that the Seacoast’s drinking water has not been contaminated by the Coakley Landfill (in North Hampton).“I am confident that the state, and our towns, will have a positive and productive relationship with the EPA moving forward,” Sununu said.The governor also discussed eradicating lead poisoning in New Hampshire.Licensed forester Charlie Niebling listened to Pruitt at Central Paper.“I liked his matter-of-fact, no-BS approach to his responsibilities,” said Niebling, a partner in the consulting firm Innovative Natural Resource Solutions in Antrim. “I respect the importance of regulatory certainty for the business community.”The White House plan to cut the EPA budget by 23 percent next fiscal year “cuts a swath through EPA’s personnel and programs in ways that are going to harm the public and public health in the long-term,” said Elgie Holstein, spokesman for the Environmental Defense Fund in Washington.Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, recently said that Pruitt “only represents the special interests. He should be removed immediately,” according to media reports.Asked about the comments, Pruitt said: “They just don’t know me.”“When you look at having an objective, to having better management, oversight, outcomes with respect to Superfunds, how is that a political issue,” Pruitt said. “How is that a bad thing?”Pruitt — who also visited the Mohawk Tannery Superfund site in Nashua — said he wants his agency to work with industry more than in prior years.“I believe most states, most citizens, most companies, most industry want to protect the air they breathe, the water they drink, and why this agency, the EPA, or any agency would treat them as an adversary is wrong-headed,” Pruitt said.“We will prosecute bad actors and we have already with the Department of Justice,” he said.“But here’s the issue: Why do you start from a premise that the industry and those folks are bad actors and not partners to begin with? That’s how you reach bad outcomes as opposed to good outcomes.”Irwin said Pruitt’s comments were based on “the false assumption this is about attacking certain industries” versus protecting the environment.Pruitt said more work needs to be done to clean up higher-than-allowed levels of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and/or perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) found around Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics site in Merrimack and the Coakley Landfill.“It is a major concern — a major concern for me, a major concern for the agency,” Pruitt said.An EPA health advisory dated November 2016 said studies on animals showed that exposure above certain levels “may result in adverse health effects,” including developmental effects to fetuses during pregnancy as well as certain cancers.mcousineau@unionleader.com 
 
 
 
 Politics ||||| EPA on Wednesday retracted its claim that Administrator Scott Pruitt has received a “blanket waiver” to fly first class whenever he travels, after POLITICO pointed officials to federal travel rules that appeared to bar such arrangements. 
 
 Pruitt has been routinely flying first class at taxpayers’ expense after securing what EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox had described as "blanket waiver,” POLITICO reported Tuesday. But the General Services Administration says federal rules require agencies’ oversight staffers to sign off on officials’ first- or business-class travel "on a trip-by-trip basis ... unless the traveler has an up-to-date documented disability or special need.” 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 Wilcox changed his explanation after POLITICO pointed out that section of the regulations. GSA does allow first-class travel for security reasons, but only if agencies request a waiver for each trip. 
 
 "As such, for every trip Administrator Pruitt submits a waiver to fly in either first or business class," Wilcox said, amending the agency's earlier statement, which yielded criticism from Republican lawmakers and led Democrats to request an inspector general investigation. 
 
 A GSA spokesperson confirmed its ban on blanket waivers to POLITICO Wednesday but would not discuss Pruitt's specific circumstances. 
 
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 The EPA spokesman said anyone seeking additional details about Pruitt’s travels would have to formally request them under the Freedom of Information Act, a process that can take months or years. In fact, the agency has not yet responded to POLITICO's June request information about travel authorizations. 
 
 Two House Democrats asked an agency watchdog earlier Wednesday to review EPA's "blanket waiver" policy. 
 
 The questions add to growing scrutiny over the high-flying travel expenses of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, five months after former HHS Secretary Tom Price stepped down following POLITICO’s reporting on his use of more than $1 million in taxpayers’ money for trips on private jets and government planes. 
 
 Pruitt and his staff say he can't fly coach because of security concerns. He regularly purchases first-class tickets on trips as short as D.C. to Boston and on long-haul flights to the Middle East. 
 
 But Norm Eisen, the former top ethics lawyer for the Obama administration and a critic of Trump, said Pruitt should not be allowed to routinely ignore regulations that are meant to ensure government officials do not waste taxpayer dollars. 
 
 "It’s nonsense, whereas no such thing as providing a blanket waiver of that kind. It’s contrary to all ethics practices," Eisen said. "If you’re going to use the people’s money in this way, there needs to be an individual waiver each time." 
 
 Information about Pruitt’s travel expenses has come out only in response to specific public records requests, including one that a court ordered EPA to respond to in mid-January from a watchdog group called the Environmental Integrity Project. It’s not possible to tally how much Pruitt has spent on first-class trips in total, but The Washington Post reported over the weekend that in early June, Pruitt and other EPA staff racked up more than $90,000 in travel bills. 
 
 Records also show Pruitt spending $1,641 for a flight from D.C. to New York City and back — a route that often costs as little as $250 with a few days’ notice. 
 
 Pruitt also may have an armed agent flying with him at the first-class price level, but EPA excluded some of the travel records in its disclosure to the environmental group, citing security concerns. 
 
 Pruitt’s high-priced trips run contrary to the practices of previous administrations, when top EPA officials typically flew coach, and ethics officials allowed first-class trips only in special circumstances. Staffers for President Barack Obama’s EPA chief, Gina McCarthy, recall her flying coach to and from Africa and Asia. 
 
 Some Republican lawmakers have criticized Pruitt’s flights, adding to angst over other Trump officials’ travel practices. Besides Price, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin have been under scrutiny for their expenses. 
 
 Eisen, now chairman of the liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said that when he was working in the White House from 2011 to 2014 he only rarely allowed non-coach travel, when State Department officials had to make flights of 14 hours or more. Trips of that length justify first-class tickets, according to federal regulations. 
 
 GSA rules clearly prohibit blanket authorizations for commercial flights in virtually all circumstances. 
 
 “Blanket authorization of other than coach-class transportation accommodations is prohibited and shall be authorized on an individual trip-by-trip basis, unless the traveler has an up-to-date documented disability or special need,” the Federal Travel Regulation says. 
 
 However, agencies can apply waivers to use government aircraft, in certain situations. 
 
 Other former federal officials speaking on background said they'd also never heard of a blanket waiver. 
 
 An advance staffer for an Obama-era Cabinet member said first class didn’t seem to offer security benefits. 
 
 “Security [staff], in my experience, doesn’t care so much what cabin the principal sits in," the former advance staffer said. "They care much more about where their seat is in the plane." 
 
 EPA's Office of Inspector General, which investigates threats against Pruitt, said last fall that he received up to five times as many threats as his immediate predecessor, McCarthy. 
 
 It is not clear how many of those threats have been deemed credible; the instances revealed so far have included threatening tweets and a menacing postcard. The internal watchdog did not immediately respond to a request on Wednesday for updated statistics on threats against Pruitt. 
 
 A former TSA official noted that everyone who flies, in coach or otherwise, is subject to security screening. 
 
 "Everyone in that aircraft went through TSA security screening," the official said. "It’s a safe environment like you’d go through the Capitol building on Capitol Hill. Everyone has gone through a metal detector, same as on an aircraft." 
 
 Other security experts told POLITICO that there are genuine protective advantages to traveling in first class. 
 
 Airlines will often work with high-profile travelers to board them separately from the general public. Flying first class also grants access to secured lounge areas, and first-class passengers disembark first. And while in the air, the first-class area is more tightly controlled than coach. 
 
 “You want to minimize as much potential problems as you can,” said Joe Funk of TorchStone Global, a private security firm. Funk spent 21 years in the Secret Service and more recently provided security for presidential candidates Obama, Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush. 
 
 “If you reduce the exposure of your protectee, your VIP, from the entire airport audience to a smaller group that is in the lounges, you’ve eliminated or minimized” threats, he added. 
 
 While flying first class could allow Pruitt access to special lounges where there are fewer passengers waiting for a plane, former federal agency staffers say VIPs are often offered that option even with just a coach ticket. Some airports ask high-level officials to disembark directly to their vehicles rather than walking through the terminal, a former EPA staffer said. And armed guards and the people they are protecting typically board planes first, former government employees familiar with the process said. 
 
 “As much as you can keep your principal away from other people,” you should, said John Sexton of Sexton Executive Security in Fairfax, Va.
– Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt says he needs to fly first-class because of a toxic environment—the political one. He says he wasn't involved in the decision to put him in first class when he travels, which he says was made after some unpleasant interactions with travelers opposed to administration policies. "We live in a very toxic environment politically, particularly around issues of the environment," he tells the New Hampshire Union Leader. He says his security team and the administration "place me on the plane where they think [it's] best from a safety perspective." He was speaking days after the Washington Post reported that Pruitt, whose predecessors mostly flew coach, has racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in first-class and military jet travel costs, including $90,000 during a busy stretch in early June. Pruitt's government-funded travel is being reviewed by the EPA's internal watchdog, which says the results of its investigation should be released by the summer, the AP reports. Earlier this week, EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox claimed Pruitt had a "blanket waiver" allowing him to choose first class whenever he travels, but he retracted the statement after Politico pointed out that federal rules require a waiver for every taxpayer-funded first-class trip when it's for security reasons. Wilcox, whose earlier statement was criticized by both Democrats and Republicans, now says Pruitt "submits a waiver to fly in either first or business class" for every trip he makes. (Pruitt is the first EPA chief to be accompanied by a 24-hour security detail.)