The love affair the heads of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have demonstrated with executives of high-polluting industries in recent years is as repulsive and indecent as the cringe-worthy season finales of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette.”

Jaclyn Jaeger is a freelance contributor to Compliance Week after working for the company for 15 years. She writes on a wide variety of topics, including ethics and compliance, risk management, legal,...