Merkley blasts Trump’s choice of Pruitt to lead EPA

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., released the following statement Wednesday regarding Donald Trump’s nomination of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency:

“Once again, Donald Trump has picked a special-interest advocate to run an executive agency. Scott Pruitt has spent his career fighting to protect fossil fuel polluters rather than the public interest. As Oklahoma Attorney General, Pruitt was caught red-handed taking arguments virtually word-for-word from fossil fuel lobbyists and putting them on his official letterhead as the position of the State of Oklahoma. Under Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency would become the ‘Polluter Protection Agency.

“Pruitt has questioned the reality of climate change and sued the federal government to block action on the mercury, arsenic, and carbon pollution that poisons our communities and children. Instead of protecting our families’ right to clean air and water, Pruitt has demonstrated time and again that his main interest is protecting polluters. He is a dangerous and unacceptable choice to lead the agency tasked with leading our climate efforts and protecting clean air and clean water for all Americans.”