{"id":27839,"date":"2017-01-19T12:02:43","date_gmt":"2017-01-19T18:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=27839"},"modified":"2017-01-19T12:02:43","modified_gmt":"2017-01-19T18:02:43","slug":"pruitt-denounces-regulations-and-distances-himself-from-climate-change-deniers-at-hearing-to-lead-epa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2017\/01\/19\/pruitt-denounces-regulations-and-distances-himself-from-climate-change-deniers-at-hearing-to-lead-epa\/","title":{"rendered":"Pruitt Denounces Regulations and Distances Himself From Climate Change Deniers at Hearing to Lead EPA"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_27840\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-27840\" alt=\"Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt testifying at a Jan. 18 confirmation hearing on his nomination as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/01\/pruitt-hearing-620x413.png\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/01\/pruitt-hearing-620x413.png 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/01\/pruitt-hearing-500x333.png 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/01\/pruitt-hearing-150x100.png 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/01\/pruitt-hearing-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/01\/pruitt-hearing.png 903w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">C-SPAN<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt testifying at a Jan. 18 confirmation hearing on his nomination as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.<\/p>\n<\/div><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/303514615&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=false\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p><p><!--more-->Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt on Wednesday faced hours of questioning at a U.S. Senate confirmation hearing on his qualifications to run the Environmental Protection Agency. The public vetting of president-elect Donald Trump\u2019s pick to lead the federal government\u2019s largest environmental regulator highlighted sharp and long-standing divisions between environmentalists and industry.<\/p><p>The six-hour hearing in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee split largely along political lines.<\/p><p>Pruitt had a warm audience from committee chairman John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican who has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.barrasso.senate.gov\/public\/index.cfm\/2016\/12\/barrasso-democrats-eight-year-war-on-coal-is-the-real-reason-coal-miners-are-suffering\">blamed the Obama EPA<\/a> for killing coal jobs in his state.<\/p><p>\u201cAttorney General Pruitt understands the need to both protect the environment while allowing our nation\u2019s economy to grow,\u201d he told the committee.<\/p><p>Oklahoma Republican Jim Inhofe was friendly, too. He told the committee Pruitt\u2019s lawsuits against the EPA were necessary \u201cto protect state and local interests from overzealous and activist executive agencies.\u201d<\/p><p>\u201cOver the last eight years, the Obama administration has advanced a radical environmental agenda,\u201d Inhofe said.<\/p><p>Pruitt will need some legal acrobatics if he&#8217;s confirmed. He&#8217;s actively engaged in several lawsuits against the EPA \u2014\u00a0 the very agency he might soon lead. Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts, tried to pin down how and when Pruitt would step away from those legal actions.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s critical that you recuse yourself,\u201d Markey said. \u201cOtherwise, honestly, people are going to think it\u2019s not just the fox guarding the henhouse, it\u2019s the fox destroying the henhouse.\u201d<\/p><p>Pruitt said he would act on advice from EPA ethics lawyers.<\/p><p>Democratic Senators pressed Pruitt on mercury and carbon emission limits. They wondered whether he was concerned enough about Oklahoma\u2019s boom in earthquakes linked to oil and gas production, and they questioned political contributions the Oklahoma attorney general received from fossil fuel companies and other industries.<\/p><p>Democrats also probed Pruitt\u2019s involvement in a state lawsuit over water pollution from chicken manure. That lawsuit was largely completed by the time Pruitt took over the Oklahoma AG\u2019s office, but court records and campaign finance data compiled by the Environmental Working Group suggest <a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2017\/01\/16\/oklahoma-ag-and-epa-pick-pruitt-stalled-pollution-lawsuit-after-contributions-from-poultry-industry\/\">he stalled that case<\/a> after accepting contributions from poultry producers.<\/p><p>The committee asked Pruitt how he\u2019d lead the EPA in a way that avoided disasters like the Gold King mine wastewater spill near Silverton, Colorado, and the lead crisis in Flint, Michigan.<\/p><p>Republican Senators like Dan Sullivan of Alaska welcomed Pruitt\u2019s efforts to fight EPA regulations. Sullivan and and others sought assurances that the Oklahoma attorney general would do more \u2014 and continue the fight as the boss of EPA.<\/p><p>Sullivan told Pruitt onerous EPA regulations are taking a mounting toll on business owners everywhere and pointed to a 200-page rule requiring anglers to obtain an EPA discharge permit to hose off the decks of their ships.<\/p><p>\u201cThink about that,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cIf you\u2019re gutting a fish and fish guts or pieces of fish fall on the deck of your ship and you hose it down, you need a permit.\u201d<\/p><p>National environmental groups oppose Pruitt\u2019s nomination to the EPA because of the Oklahoma attorney general\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/article\/435470\/climate-change-attorneys-general?platform=hootsuite\">statements<\/a> casting doubt on the science of climate change. On this, Pruitt clarified his position \u2014 in contrast to that of Sen. Inhofe and President-elect Trump, who have called climate change a hoax.<\/p><p>Massachusetts Democrat Ed Markey asked, \u201cSo Donald Trump is wrong?\u201d<\/p><p>\u201cI do not believe climate change is a hoax,\u201d Pruitt answered.<\/p><p>Taking it further, Pruitt told Markey that, if confirmed, he would not refute a key federal government ruling \u2014 known as the \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/06\/27\/science\/earth\/epa-emissions-rules-backed-by-court.html\">endangerment finding<\/a>\u201d \u2014 that greenhouse gas emissions are a threat to American public health.<\/p><p>\u201cThat is the law of the land,\u201d Pruitt said, assuring Markey that, if confirmed, he had no plans to reverse the agency\u2019s position. \u201cThere is nothing that I know that will cause a review at this point.\u201d<\/p><p>While Pruitt acknowledged the role humans and CO2 play in fueling climate change, he questioned the degree of that influence in statements that are out-of-step with the scientific consensus that such activity is \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/08\/20\/science\/earth\/extremely-likely-that-human-activity-is-driving-climate-change-panel-finds.html?pagewanted=all\">extremely likely<\/a>\u201d to be the primary reason for global temperature increases.<\/p><p>Pruitt also did not adopt the climate urgency of senators like Vermont\u2019s Bernie Sanders, who pushed the Oklahoma attorney general to explain why the scientific evidence didn\u2019t demand immediate action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":27840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[490,491],"tags":[678,688,647],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27839"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27839"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27847,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27839\/revisions\/27847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}