Why Oklahoma’s Attorney General is Using Coal to Fight the EPA

• Joe Wertz
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  Joe Wertz was a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma from 2011-2019. He reported on energy and environment issues for national NPR audiences and other national outlets. He previously worked as a managing editor, assistant editor and staff reporter at several major Oklahoma newspapers and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt.

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt is no fan of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and filing lawsuits against the federal agency has become a signature of the state’s chief legal adviser.

Pruitt on Aug. 21 said he would appeal the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that rejected Oklahoma’s authority to use its own regulatory plan to limit sulfur dioxide emissions at coal-fired power plans owned by Oklahoma Gas & Electric, the state’s largest electric utility.

And at an Aug. 22 forum co-hosted by Pruitt and U.S. Rep. James Lankford, a libertarian researcher said an environmental compliance plan by the state’s second largest power utility to end its coal use would be too expensive, The Oklahoman’s Paul Monies reports:

Oklahoma isn’t Wyoming or West Virginia, so why does our Attorney General care if the fed’s environmental agency cracks down on coal?

Coal today — oil and natural gas tomorrow, Pruitt fears:

… I believe the EPA has an anti-fossil fuel mentality,” Pruitt said. “They started with coal, and now it’s reached natural gas. … You see that permeating the EPA’s approach to these laws. That’s the reason I think they are rejecting, and dismissing and not respecting, the role of the states.”