“I believe that we as an agency and we as a nation can be both pro-energy and jobs and pro-environment”, he said in his first address to employees at the EPA.
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He said the debate on the subject “was far from settled” and joined a coalition of state attorney generals in suing the agency’s Clean Power Plan, a key Obama-era policy that tried to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
Audio clip: Listen to audio clip.
Pruitt’s office at the EPA has not yet commented on the release of the emails. “No right-wing cause seemed to be off-limits to Pruitt’s public office as he focused on weakening protections for the climate and endangered species”.
Fellow attendee Maura Callahan, a hydrogeologist who does research to inform municipal water suppliers, said she was anxious about potential changes to the Clean Water Act, which regulates water pollution in the US.
The Oklahoma Attorney General’s office said it has gone beyond the requirements of the Open Records Act.
They held secret meetings to discuss more comprehensive ways to combat the Obama administration’s environmental agenda, and the companies and organizations they funded repeatedly praised Mr. Pruitt and his staff for the assistance he provided in their campaign.
Some emails show that companies like Devon Energy in 2013 provided Pruitt’s office with draft letters to send to government regulators in an attempt to block those regulations.
Pruitt also said that there shouldn’t be a contradiction between environmental protection and energy production or job creation, a line also often emphasized by President George W. Bush’s administration.
Pruitt’s contentious confirmation drew scorn from a variety of critics.
Senate Democrats pushed to extend debate on his nomination until the emails were released, to no avail.
Pruitt made his reputation suing the EPA 13 times, repeatedly joining oil, gas and coal players ― including Oklahoma Gas & Electric and the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance, an industry-backed group ― in filing lawsuits to halt regulations.
On Tuesday, a trade group representing 12 automakers-including Toyota, Volkswagen, and General Motors-asked new EPA chief Scott Pruitt to back out of a decision set forth by former president Barack Obama that locks in emissions regulations until 2025, Automotive News reports.
Pruitt did not offer any detail on upcoming executive orders from the Trump administration that would potentially disband acts such as the Clean Power Plan and the Waters of the US regulation. District Judge Aletia Haynes Timmons is reviewing those claims, and has ordered the agency to produce other emails requested by the watchdog group.
I still am in the camp that views that we need to dump the agency entirely and go back to the drawing board, but Pruitt presents a potential policy and regulatory climate that has never been seen before. He said that environmental laws were not meant to be a “one-size-fits-all model”, and that “the state departments of environmental quality have an enormous role to play”.
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“This broad disclosure should provide affirmation that, despite politically motivated allegations, the Office of the Attorney General remains fully committed to the letter and spirit of the Open Records Act”, the office said in a statement.
