Yesterday, Senate Democrats on the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works hosted a panel discussion to further examine U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator nominee Scott Pruitt’s environmental record and highlight his lack of qualifications needed to lead the agency. Waterkeeper Alliance’s Senior Attorney Kelly Foster spoke as an expert witness; as the former Environmental Protection Unit Chief in the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office, she is uniquely familiar with Pruitt’s dangerous environmental track record.
Also yesterday, the Trump administration fast-tracked the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines and ordered specific prohibitions banning EPA from issuing press releases, blog updates or posts to the agency’s social media accounts. They also ordered a suspension of EPA grants that provided much-needed funding to important environmental research, like drinking water quality. Today, it was ordered that climate change be removed from the agency’s website (UPDATE: Agency employees have been told to “stand down” on this order). All of these actions are a direct threat to scientific integrity and the safety of the American public.
EPA was founded to “protect human health and the environment.” Not a single panelist on yesterday’s discussion with Senate Democrats was able to cite an action Pruitt took as Oklahoma Attorney General that produced a positive public health or environmental outcome.
Pruitt has proven that he does not intend to base policy decisions on sound science, invest in an energy-independent future based on renewables, and protect the air, water, and health of future generations. He is unfit to run EPA.
Call your Senators now and tell them to say “no” to Scott Pruitt for EPA Administrator.
Image by PennFuture.