What You Need to Know About Scott Pruitt

By Sierra Club

Today, Scott Pruitt will go before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee for his confirmation hearing — and we’re likely to hear more on why he is the most unfit and dangerous person ever tapped to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Here’s what you need to know:

Scott Pruitt:

  • …is a friend to fossil fuels, forming secretive alliances with major oil and gas companies to attack environmental protections. Read more here.

  • …sued the EPA to stop them from protecting children against mercury, a dangerous neurotoxin. He’s actually sued the EPA 14 times. Read more here and here.

  • …led the fight to destroy the life-saving, job-creating Clean Power Plan. Read more here.

  • …created an organization designed to undermine essential federal safeguards across the board — what’s worse is this group can even take unlimited corporate donations. Read more here.

  • …denies climate science, despite what 97% of climate scientists and the majority of Americans say. Read more here.

  • …failed to follow the law on reporting outside attorney contacts. Read more here.

  • …gutted enforcement of environmental protections. Scott Pruitt eliminated the budget for the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Environmental Enforcement Unit, and shut it down. Instead, he started up a new unit that spent its time suing the federal government to try and stop safeguards that protect our air, protect our water, and save lives. Read more.

  • …sat on his hands while families in Bokoshe, Oklahoma were getting sick from a coal ash dump in their community. Read more here.

  • …refused to act when Oklahoma became the most seismic state in the lower 48 and earthquakes destroyed people’s homes as fracking increased. What Pruitt has done – and not done – in Oklahoma is sneak preview for what he would do to the rest of our nation if he becomes EPA administrator. Read more here.

  • … mixed and mingled his PAC, Super PAC, and C4 to the point that it’s difficult to see where when operation ends and the other begins. Read more here or here.

Originally posted here.