"Trump To Pick Oil Ally Pruitt To Head EPA"

"President-elect Donald Trump is planning to pick Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to run the EPA, putting one of the agency's most hostile critics and a skeptic of climate change science at its helm, sources close to the transition said Wednesday.

As attorney general for a state that is one the nation's biggest oil, natural gas and grain producers, Pruitt has been at the forefront of lawsuits challenging EPA regulations on carbon emissions and water pollution, and he is expected to lead the effort to erase much of President Barack Obama's environmental agenda. Pruitt has also faced accusations that he's unusually close to energy producers, including a 2014 New York Times story reporting that he and other Republican attorneys general had formed an “unprecedented, secretive alliance” with the industry.

But his agenda would mesh well with Trump, who unloaded on Obama's EPA during the campaign, calling it a 'disgrace' that was strangling the economy. Trump promised to reduce the agency to 'tidbits.'"

Alex Guillén and Andrew Restuccia report for Politico December 7, 2016.

SEE ALSO:

"Trump To Pick Foe Of Obama Climate Agenda To Run EPA: Source" (Reuters)

"Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General" (New York Times: 12/6/2014)

"Trump Picks Scott Pruitt, Climate Change Denialist, to Lead E.P.A." (New York Times)

"Trump Picks Oklahoma Attorney General To Lead EPA" (AP)

"EPA: Greens to Trump Pick: 'Let The Battle Begin'" (E&E News PM)

"Can Democrats Block Trump’s EPA Nominee?" (ClimateWire)

"Trump Names Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma Attorney General Suing EPA On Climate Change, To Head The EPA" (Washington Post)

"Trump Reportedly Picks Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt To Lead EPA" (NPR)

"Donald Trump Taps Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to Lead EPA" (Wall Street Journal)

"EPA: Okla. AG Pruitt Is Trump's Pick For Administrator" (Greenwire)

"Trump Picks Strident Foe of EPA to Lead the EPA" (Climate Central)

"EPA Nominee Opposes Clean Power Plan But Says Fracking, Not Rules, Drove Coal’s Decline" (McClatchy)

"Trump Names Climate Change Skeptic And Oil Industry Ally To Lead The EPA" (Los Angeles Times)

"Trump EPA Nomination Scares Environmentalists Who Decry Fox-Guarding-Henhouse 'Disaster'" (Denver Post)

"Oklahoma’s Attorney General Misled Supreme Court About Letter On Execution Drug Availability" (Buzzfeed)

"Trump Picks Climate Change Sceptic Scott Pruitt To Lead EPA" (Guardian)