From the Wall Street Journal
Fossil fuel advocate has been harsh critic of agency, fought Obama’s environmental regulations
Reports have Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as Pres.-elect Trump’s choice to head the EPA
WASHINGTON—President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, according to a transition official, choosing a harsh critic of the agency to take its helm.
As the chief legal officer of a big oil and natural-gas producing state, Mr. Pruitt, a Republican, has led legal fights against some of President Barack Obama’s most significant environmental rules.
Mr. Pruitt has touted his leadership role in fighting the EPA rule that cut power-plant carbon emissions, as well as an EPA measure that put more bodies of water under federal jurisdiction. Both of those rules have been temporarily blocked by federal courts as litigation proceeds.
In choosing a legal official to head his EPA, Mr. Trump could be signaling that legal action will be central to his plans to repeal a raft of regulations, something he promised on the campaign trail.
The Obama administration has issued an array of regulations, most originating at the EPA, aimed at cutting greenhouse-gas emissions, including a high-profile rule that would reduce carbon emissions at power plants. Mr. Trump has vowed to repeal that rule, called the Clean Power Plan, and a host of others related to climate change and other environmental issues.
The selection of Mr. Pruitt reflects a request by some on Mr. Trump’s transition team that his cabinet—currently heavy on close allies and rich business people—should also include state officials and others not closely associated with the president-elect.
From Utility Dive
Trump taps fossil fuel ally Scott Pruitt to head EPA, reports say
President-elect Donald Trump will appoint Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt (R) to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, multiple news outlets report.
Pruitt is an ardent critic of the EPA’s power sector regulations under President Obama and has worked with generators and fossil fuel companies to combat stricter environmental rules. He is one of the leaders of a lawsuit challenging federal carbon rules under the Clean Power Plan.
Reports of Pruitt’s appointment were based on unnamed sources in the Trump transition team. Pruitt’s nomination would be reviewed by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works before being sent to the floor for a vote.
Oklahoma’s top lawyer since 2011, Scott Pruitt is an ardent critic of the Obama administration’s environmental policy and a reliable ally of the fossil fuel industry.
While he was not the public face of the campaign, Pruitt’s office put considerable work into preparing the legal challenge against the Clean Power Plan, the Tulsa World reports, the nation’s first set of carbon regulations for existing power plants.
The D.C. Circuit Court is currently reviewing the rules, which Trump has promised to scrap during his first 100 days in office. During his tenure, Pruitt also sued the EPA over its Cross-State Air Pollution Rules and the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards.
Pruitt’s cooperation with the fossil fuel industry has been consistent through his tenure, a 2014 New York Times investigation found, with trade groups and companies joining his office in legal challenges and petitions against the EPA. In one instance, Pruitt’s office pasted his letterhead on a note written by an energy lobbyist to the EPA arguing the agency was not properly measuring pollution from natural gas drilling.
Pruitt is also skeptical of climate science, writing this May that the debate is “far from settled.”
“Scientists continue to disagree about the degree and extent of global warming and its connection to the actions of mankind,” he wrote in a National Journal op-ed. “That debate should be encouraged — in classrooms, public forums, and the halls of Congress.”
Environmental organizations have already criticized Trump’s selection, with Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune likening the choice to “putting an arsonist in charge of fighting fires” in a statement.
