“The state has to have an interest before you bring those cases, as you know”.
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In a statement Tuesday, Inhofe said Pruitt “realizes the need to scale back the burdensome red tape EPA has become known for under the outgoing administration”. A lawyer for two political action committees tied to Pruitt told AP earlier this month they would be dissolved before any move to Washington.
Current Oklahoma attorney general and Environmental Protection Agency secretary nominee Scott Pruitt endured a more than 6-hour long confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
Pruitt had a warm audience from committee chairman John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican who has blamed the Obama EPA for killing coal jobs in his state. “Senators would do well to remember that this is an issue of particular significance for many Latino voters”. In an Op-Ed in the Times, on Wednesday, Eric Schaeffer, who directed the agency’s office of civil enforcement from 1997 to 2002, made a similar point. “They could learn a lot from Scott Pruitt”. Pruitt’s record shows time and time again that he puts corporate profit before public health.
During George W. Bush’s presidency, the EPA refused to provide California with the waiver it needs to impose clean vehicle rules that go further than federal standards.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) badgered Pruitt to reveal whether he helped raise fossil fuel industry money for the Rule of Law Defense Fund, which Pruitt served on from 2014 through December. “We will fight this appointment like our lives depend on it – because they do”.
Pruitt’s nomination to the EPA, is viewed by many environmental activists as putting a fossil fuel sympathizer in charge of the agency whose rules regulate those same industries for polluting water and the air.
Several court cases against the EPA that Pruitt is involved in as Oklahoma attorney general are ongoing. Our environment matters to the health of the planet, to future generations and to the economic vitality of our communities. “But now, when it comes to the rights of California, of MA, and other states to be able to reduce carbon pollution, you’re saying you’re going to review that”. Among those who gave the maximum contribution of $5,000 to Pruitt’s campaign was Continental Resources Chairman and CEO Harold Hamm, an Oklahoma oil tycoon who has been advising the president-elect. Pruitt has consistently opposed the EPA’s ability to enforce laws that keep Maine’s air clean.
Pruitt said he would review a federal waiver provided to California that allows it to operate clean auto standards that are more stringent than federal rules.
The 48-year-old Republican has previously cast doubt on the extensive body of scientific evidence showing that the planet is warming and man-made carbon emissions are to blame.
Sanders: “Why is the climate changing?” When pressed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) pressed him to elaborate, Pruitt said his climate change opinion is “immaterial”. “Mr. Pruitt’s past actions suggest that he simply is not up to this task”. While Pruitt stressed the market has changed since the RFS was first implemented in 2005, he also said he thinks the use of waivers should be consistent with the will of congress.
Will you commit then to upholding that same standard, to recognizing California’s authority to issue its own new motor vehicle air pollution standards?
In fact, Pruitt has attacked pretty much every federal law and regulation he doesn’t agree with – especially when they are meant to protect average citizens.
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PRUITT: As I indicated in my opening statement, the climate is changing and human activity contributes to that in some manner.
