Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s nomination to become the new chief of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is now opposed by 13 former heads of state environmental protection agencies, most from liberal states.
Some served under Republican Governors. Others served under Democratic governors. In a letter this week, they all urged Senators on the Environment and Public Works Committee to reject Pruitt. The 13 worked in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.
Their letter was distributed by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
“His record, particularly as a litigator against many EPA rules, causes us to question whether he: 1) appropriately respects science-based decisionmaking, and 2) understands the important role that EPA must play in the ‘cooperative federalism’ model that undergirds our nation’s environmental laws.”
They were also skeptical of the numerous lawsuits filed by Pruitt against the EPA.
“Rather than EPA acting as our partner in state-led efforts to ensure clean air and water for our residents, we fear that an EPA under Mr. Pruitt would undermine the rules that help to make sure that our state regulations are successful,” wrote the former environment chiefs. They said Pruitt’s fights with the EPA were “deeply troubling” and a sign of “an inclination to set science aside when the outcome is at odds with his predetermined political point of view.”
A review of the states where the environment chiefs once worked shows many are liberal leaning, such as California, New York, Massachusetts and Washington. None are from the Mid-West where Pruitt’s challenges of the EPA have support.
One former secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality sides with Donald Trump’s nomination of Pruitt.
“Pruitt knows the federal agency has an appropriate role in environmental protection but also understands that state governments have demonstrated the ability to implement environmental protections without destroying the very thing that makes environmental protection possible: a strong economy,” wrote Donald van der Vaart in The Daily Caller.
