Fossil fuel-backed Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt could be the next head of the Environmental Protection Agency. CREDIT: AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki.
EPA Opponent to Head EPA. This is the kind of thing we are going to see more and more of, and while there are massive concerns with virtually every Trump appointee, this one is particularly worrisome, because this means there will be no more EPA. Instead there will be the office of Hell Yes, tear the planet to shreds, it’s all good! This news comes on top of the current rapid arctic ice melt. Rapacious greed and Christian dominionism are now in charge.
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has been tapped to run the Environmental Protection Agency in the Trump administration, multiple sources reported Wednesday.
Pruitt’s selection, while not a surprise, signifies a complete rethinking of the EPA. Environmental groups were appalled by the selection, saying it was a win for polluters and a loss for the American public.
As with so many of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet and transition staff, Pruitt does not accept the scientific consensus on climate change. As attorney general, Pruitt has routinely backed fossil fuel interests over those of environmental regulators and has rejected the EPA’s authority to regulate carbon dioxide, the leading contributor to human-caused climate change.
Pruitt’s ties to fossil fuel companies run deep. He received some $300,000 in fossil fuel money to support his campaign for attorney general.
In one instance, Pruitt used talking points from an energy company in a letter to the EPA, opposing air pollution standards for natural gas production. According to reporting from the New York Times, Devon Energy, an Oklahoma-based oil and gas company actually wrote the 2011 letter, which Pruitt submitted on state letterhead.
Oklahoma, under Pruitt, is one of the states that has sued to block the Clean Power Plan, an ambitious EPA regulation that seeks to curb emissions from power plants. Along with other Republican attorneys general, Pruitt attended private, high-dollar meetings with coal companies prior to joining the lawsuit.
The full story is at Think Progress.
Absolutely appalling. And just more of the same of what we expect from The Orange One. This administration will be the most destructive for the planet and its inhabitants ever. How can people even try to defend this shit?
I’ve said a few times that Trump’s advisers/appointees were mostly not worth worrying about -- bad people, sure, but generally not actually disastrous -- and the real lasting damage his election would do would be linked to his Supreme Court picks.
I was wrong. This really is dreadful.
sonofrojblake:
Yeah, it is. Still in shock here.
And now there’s an anti-labour Secretary of Labor.
If there was a Secretary of Sheep, Donald would appoint a wolf.
This is a standard strategy around the globe. Here in Oz Tony Abbott put Hell Yes guys in charge of EPA and Turnbull has decimated climate research at the CSIRO.
I also note they all now avoid talking about the science and talk about how mean everyone is being to businesses and the economy.