Connecticut environmental groups say they oppose President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of Oklahoma Republican Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency.
Connecticut Fund for the Environment Legal Director Roger Reynolds says Pruitt has a record in Oklahoma of opposing the mission of the EPA.
“He’s really being sent there to specifically dismantle this agency. And this agency is responsible for the enormous environmental progress that we’ve achieved.”
Reynolds says maintaining that progress is vital to protecting and preserving air and water resources across state borders.
“These are interstate problems. Water does not respect state boundaries, and air certainly does not respect state boundaries. So the states can’t do that on our own.”
Reynolds says his organization and several other environmental groups in Connecticut would like Trump’s transition team to pull Pruitt’s name from consideration. He says if they don’t, pro-environment Democratic and Republican lawmakers in the U.S. Senate should come together and reject Pruitt’s nomination.
So far the Trump transition team has shown no indication of reversing any of the nominations they’ve made.