Senate Democrats are vowing to block the expected nomination of President-elect Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, whom they accused of being a climate change denier and supporter of fossil fuels.
Newly elected Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tweeted, “Pruitt stands with big oil & climate deniers, not American families who fight for #CleanAir & #CleanWater.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt,, former presidential candidate and the Democratic leadership’s new head of outreach, said, “I will vigorously oppose this nomination.”
“The American people must demand leaders who are willing to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels,” Sanders said.
Sanders said climate change is a “great environmental threat to the entire planet, it is sad and dangerous that Mr. Trump has nominated Scott Pruitt to lead the EPA.”
He said Pruitt is a climate change denier who has worked side-by-side with the fossil fuel industry “to make this country more dependent, not less, on fossil fuels.” Many scientists blame the greenhouse gases emitted from burning fossil fuels for driving manmade climate change.
Pruitt is part of a lawsuit with nearly 30 other attorneys general opposing the EPA’s climate regulations and is an ardent foe of the agency’s overreach.
The Senate must confirm all of Trump’s Cabinet appointees and will be a crucial chokepoint for moving his administration’s agenda forward.
Other Democrats responded to the Pruitt pick by suggesting the confirmation process will be long and drawn-out.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said he expects people to be “shocked” by what they find out about Pruitt in the confirmation process regarding his “disdain” for their health in supporting the fossil fuel industry’s right to pollute.
Although he wasn’t as explicit as Sanders in vowing to oppose the nomination, he said to “stay tuned” for the confirmation hearings.
Billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer asked the Senate to stand on the “right side of history and fight for our families by defeating this nomination,” Steyer said.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said, “For the sake of the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the planet we will leave our children, the head of the EPA cannot be a stenographer for the lobbyists of polluters and Big Oil.”
Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the new incoming chairman of the Senate Environment and PublicWorks Committee that oversees the EPA, welcomed the nomination.
“I want to congratulate Attorney General Pruitt on his nomination to lead the EPA,” Barrasso said. “I look forward to hearing more from him on his experience and goals for the agency during the confirmation process.
“One thing is clear: Our country needs a new EPA administrator who will bring balance to vital environmental stewardship while we work together to keep the costs of energy affordable for all Americans,” he said.
