President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma attorney general and friend of the fossil fuel industry, to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to multiple news reports.
Trump had previously considered five candidates for the EPA’s top administrator, including North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Donald van der Vaart.
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The EPA is a 15,000-employee agency currently under the leadership of Gina McCarthy. It is responsible for regulating the country’s air, water and land contamination, and climate change.
Pruitt, who rejects mainstream climate science, is a Republican who has worked to take down Obama’s climate change endeavors through legal tools, including against Obama’s Clean Power Plan.
Van der Vaart has advocated for a relax of federal environmental regulations. He co-signed a letter last month asking Trump to give states more power to regulate the environment.
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- Read the letter sent to President-elect Donald Trump signed by Donald van der Vaart
