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Scott pruitt endangered public his drivers

#Scott pruitt endangered public his drivers full#

The ability to measure the extent and degree of that impact and what to do about it are subject to continuing debate and dialogue, and well it should be.” (To which Sen. Here’s how Pruitt parsed that in his confirmation hearing earlier this month: “Let me say to you, science tells us that the climate is changing, and that human activity in some manner impacts that change. He is a climate-change obstructionist, hiding behind the canard that there’s still room for debate on the magnitude of global warming and the role humans have played in causing it.Photo: Calum Wright/Great Backyard Bird Count When a group aligned with Hamm sued the Department of the Interior to block consideration of adding the Lesser Prairie-Chicken to the endangered species list, Pruitt hopped aboard that lawsuit as well.Īccording to Audubon scientists, the White-throated Sparrow could lose 73 percent of its summer range by 2080 as a result of climate change. Hamm, CEO of oil and gas giant Continental Resources, served as chairman of Pruitt’s most recent reelection campaign. (The company’s director of government relations sent an appreciative note in response: “Outstanding!”) Oklahoma Gas & Electric held a fundraiser for Pruitt four days before he filed an appeal in their case against the EPA. A 2014 investigation by the New York Times found that a three-page letter Pruitt submitted to the EPA accusing regulators of grossly overestimating air pollution caused by natural-gas drilling in Oklahoma had been written by lawyers for Devon Energy and copied onto state letterhead with a few minor tweaks to the wording. According to a tally by the National Institute of Money in State Politics, Pruitt has received a total of nearly $315,000 in campaign contributions from fossil fuel industries since 2002.

He has unapologetically served as a well-compensated ventriloquist’s dummy for energy interests.

And during his confirmation hearings, Pruitt refused to commit to fully recusing himself from involvement in the still-pending cases that he himself has brought against the agency. He has challenged the determination that greenhouse gas pollution endangers health and the environment, and has participated in four separate suits challenging the carbon-emissions-reducing Clean Power Plan. He has challenged limits on mercury pollution (twice), efforts to reduce ozone pollution, and clean air standards for oil and gas drilling sites.

Pruitt has spent his tenure as Oklahoma Attorney General relentlessly suing the very agency he is now on tap to “lead.” Since taking office in 2010, he has brought or joined 14 separate suits, nearly always in collaboration with energy interests, designed to undercut or overturn the agency’s authority to enforce environmental regulations.

#Scott pruitt endangered public his drivers full#

And so, as the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee prepares for a Wednesday vote to send Pruitt’s nomination to the full Senate for confirmation, it seemed a worthy exercise to pull together an accounting of Pruitt’s various disqualifications for the job. With the synapse-frying onslaught of news (not to mention alternative facts) surging out of the White House in the 11 days since the inauguration, it’s hard for even the most engaged observer’s attention not to stray from-oh, just to pick one relevant example-the egregious unfitness of nominee Scott Pruitt to serve as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.