What Trump’s Nominee For EPA Could Mean For Massachusetts12:30

“We won’t be joining this coalition, and we hope that those attorneys general who have joined will disavow it”.

“The U.S. Senate has the responsibility of approving the EPA administrator”. Since taking office in 2011, he has filed several lawsuits against the EPA. I look forward to working with him to restore a balanced approach to regulations and governance that fosters economic growth, advances energy independence and ensures stewardship for the environment.

Right now, that case is headed to a 10-judge D.C. Circuit panel that will decide the legality of the Clean Power Plan regulations.

As The Washington Post notes, “Pruitt has spent much of his energy as attorney general fighting the very agency he is being nominated to lead”. Commentator Dick Morris agreed with Pruitt’s position, explaining that the law had said tax credits could be given only if a plan was enrolled in through the exchange established by the state under Section 1311 of the Affordable Care Act.

Pruitt’s outlook reflects the state from which he comes: Oklahoma ranked fifth in the nation in onshore crude oil output in 2014, has five oil refineries, and is home to the giant Cushing oil storage and trading hub, where the price for the benchmark West Texas Intermediate grade is set every day.

“I do think that the new administration will have to expend substantial effort for a rule that rolls back or repeals the endangerment finding to withstand legal challenges”, said Megan Berge, a lawyer for Baker Botts who represents power companies. I applaud President-elect Trump’s appointment of Scott Pruitt as head of the EPA.

Corporation Commissioner Todd Hiett was the Republican house speaker when Pruitt was a state senator – they also battled each other in a primary race for Lt. Governor in 2006.

In May 2013 he spoke before a gathering of Concerned Women for America’s “Take a Stand” rally at Oklahoma City’s Rock Church and supported statements by other speakers who said employers should be able to fire someone simply for being gay.

“He’s going to be thorough, he’s going to be fair and he’s going to stay within the confines of the law”, Hiett says. “The miners in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, which was so great to me last week, and OH and all over, they’re going to start to work again”. Oklahoma is the nation’s third-largest producer of natural gas, fifth-largest producer of crude oil and ranks second in number of active drilling rigs-and the state ranks last among all states in renewable energy usage. He argued that those regulations violate citizens’ property rights and stifle the oil and gas industries that largely drive his state’s economy.

Following the announcement, Boeve called Trump’s acknowledgement of the connection between human activity and climate change and his meeting with former Vice President Al Gore “nothing more than a smokescreen”.