President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency has drawn ire from Democrats and environmentalists, but more than a few notable Republicans are quite pleased with the selection of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt.
“Under Pruitt’s leadership, EPA will return to an agency that works to protect human health and the environment based on sound science and transparent data while respecting the laws passed by Congress. Most importantly, the agency will no longer be a barrier to economic growth, but rather an important partner,” Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, wrote in a Dec. 21 editorial in the Washington Examiner.
Inhofe said the EPA under the Obama administration has not been inclusive. The agency has developed regulations without adequate input from innovators, job creators, and the states according to Inhofe. “The result has been regulatory uncertainty in the form of federal mandates crafted by unelected bureaucrats. This has crippled our economic growth and opportunity,” Inhofe wrote, adding “Republicans have and will continue to put Americans’ economic well-being and environmental health on equal footing. I have no doubt that with Oklahoma’s Attorney General Scott Pruitt at the helm of the EPA, the Trump administration will restore this balance.”
The EPA’s Clean Power Plan, EPA’s carbon emissions standards for coal-fired power plants, and Inhofe in particular has been a long-time opponent of the rule. Pruitt is currently involved in a lawsuit seeking the overturn the CPP.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who was forced out of the GOP presidential primary by Trump’s ascendance, also endorsed Pruitt in a Dec. 20 editorial published by CNN. “I cannot think of a person more suited to lead the Environmental Protection Agency than Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, someone who understands how to rein in an out-of-control bureaucracy and ensure that Washington focuses solely on its core functions,” Bush wrote.