“The American people deserve an EPA that rejects extreme activism and instead returns to its proper interpretation of environmental law. … Pruitt has demonstrated that he is an expert on environmental laws and a champion of states’ roles in implementing those laws.” — U.S. Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma City, in a Dec. 7 media statement lauding President-elect Donald Trump’s appointment of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Flashback to the Dec. 6, 2014, New York Times piece about Pruitt’s fight against Obama administration environmental protections. Pruitt signed and sent letters to the president, EPA and Interior Department that were later discovered to be written by Devon Energy corporate representatives.
“When you use a public office, pretty shamelessly, to vouch for a private party with substantial financial interest without the disclosure of the true authorship, that is a dangerous practice,” Republican David B. Frohnmayer, who served 10 years as Oregon’s attorney general, told the Times in 2014. “The puppeteer behind the stage is pulling strings, and you can’t see. I don’t like that. And when it is exposed, it makes you feel used.”
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