Shortly after taking office, Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt set out to permanently limit the agencys regulatory power in what he billed as a Back to Basics agenda focusing on cleaning up toxic waste and providing safe drinking water but not curbing new industrial pollution.

Former administrators warn that it could take anywhere from a few years to three decades for future administrations to restore the EPA to where it was a year ago, before the regulatory rollbacks, mass attrition and budget cuts.

If [former President Barack] Obamas name is near it irrespective of whether its good, bad or indifferent theyre undoing it, Christine Todd Whitman, who served as administrator under former President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003, told HuffPost. To just mindlessly do it is mindless. Theres no other word for it.

The lasting damage is already significant, and seems likely to get worse. Despite rumors that Pruitt may leave his post early to run for Senate or governor in Oklahoma, his home state, or take over as attorney general if Jeff Sessions steps down, the administrator has plans to ramp up his efforts in 2018. He told The Wall Street Journal this week that his second year would focus on accelerating efforts to remake the agency and speeding up the permitting process.

Theres tremendous opportunity to show really significant results to the American people in a really short time frame, Pruitt said.