Trump appoints Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as head of Environmental Protection Agency

[brooklynite]

Source: The Week

Donald Trump will appoint Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, the transition team has informed Reuters. Pruitt has long been an outspoken critic of President Obama's EPA, and even sued the agency over its water regulations as well as its controversial climate change regulations imposed on power plants, Politico reports.

Pruitt has also questioned "the degree and extent of global warming and its connection to the actions of mankind," having called the "debate … far from settled." Jeva Lange

Read more: http://theweek.com/speedreads/666014/trump-appoints-oklahoma-attorney-general-scott-pruitt-head-environmental-protection-agency

[yeoman6987]

1. Anyone from Oklahoma know him? Good pick? Bad pick? Bipartisan by chance?

[brooklynite]

2. This is a rhetorical question, right?

When the Environmental Protection Agency proposed rules regulating carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants, Scott Pruitt sued. When the Justice Department offered legal status to young undocumented immigrants, Scott Pruitt sued. And when the Obama administration sought to give tax credits to states that hadn’t set up their own health insurance exchanges, Scott Pruitt sued.

Since becoming Oklahoma attorney general in 2010, Pruitt has filed or joined lawsuits against federal agencies at least a dozen times. Even when Oklahoma isn’t an actual party in litigation, the state often submits a legal brief against the federal government. Besides air pollution, immigration and health care, Pruitt has fought federal laws and regulations on banking, contraception and endangered species. These days, whenever states go to court against the Obama administration, the chances are that Pruitt is somehow involved.

http://www.governing.com/topics/politics/gov-oklahoma-scott-pruit-feature.html

[yeoman6987]

3. Yeah. I figured he'd suck. I was hoping for a little hope we didn't lose everything.

So sad.

[geomon666]

6. Abandon all hope

and fight your ass off.

[Kingofalldems]

10. Looks like taunting from here.

Not fooled.

[wordpix]

19. Trump has perfected the fascist cabinet of oligarchs backed by generals

Fight!

[JudyM]

5. So much for his high profile meeting with Gore. And Ivanka's "influence" on him. Just nightmarish.

[wordpix]

20. his meeting with Gore is bizarre in light of this pick. The 5 y.o. Trump brain

must've thought: "Gore is mean b/c he stood his ground on climate change. I'm now gonna show him!"

[JudyM]

22. Certainly is bizarre. Looking forward to hearing something from Gore now. How did he characterize

the meeting? "Interesting," I think?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

8. "This is a rhetorical question, right?" Finally, something made me laugh today. Thanks.

Next up, the proposed head of the FDA with no background in medicine or scientific research:

Hat tip, Joe.My.God: Trump’s Potential FDA Pick, Crony Of Libertarian Peter Thiel, Wants To Approve Drugs Before Proven Efficacy

By Jessie Hellmann - 12/07/16 12:52 PM EST

Trump considering Silicon Valley investor to head FDA: report

Donald Trump is considering appointing Silicon Valley investor Jim O'Neill to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

O'Neill, a close associate of billionaire Peter Thiel, is a managing director at Thiel's Mithril Capital Management. He served in the George W. Bush administration as principal associate deputy secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services.

O'Neill would be an unconventional pick because he does not have a medical background, and the head of the FDA usually is a trained physician or a prominent scientific researcher, as Bloomberg notes.

Many of Trump's selections have been regarded as unconventional as he taps those with little experience working for the government.

Donald Trump Picks Scott Pruitt, Ally of Fossil Fuel Industry, to Lead E.P.A.

By CORAL DAVENPORT DEC. 7, 2016

[George II]

4. Almost as bad a bush's pick of the governor of the state with the dirties environment...

....for that job - Whitman of NJ ("the air at Ground Zero is perfectly safe&quot

[SpankMe]

7. And Trump will nominate John Wayne Gacy to lead the Center for Missing and Exploited Children

With Jared Fogle as Gacy's deputy.

Really, these appointments are getting ridiculous. If liberals did the same thing - such as nominate Jane Fonda for Secretary of Defense, or Michael Moore to lead the BATF - Republicans would go into open, armed revolt and their heads would explode.

Me head is exploding at Trump's appointments. But, I'm not doing open and armed revolt.

[James48]

9. Breif writup of Pruitt's history and the EPA:

Most accurate statement in the article:

"Attorney General Pruitt has apparently never seen an EPA rule that didn’t prompt him to run to court to have it blocked."

On his own LinkedIn page, he boasts that he “led the charge with repeated notices and subsequent lawsuits against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for their [sic] leadership’s activist agenda.”

https://www.edf.org/blog/2016/11/30/epa-candidate-brags-about-suing-agency-calls-climate-science-unsettled

[wordpix]

21. it's easy to sue as AG when you're spending taxpayer $. Wonder how much he spent?

The people of OK need to know

[underpants]

11. We were this close. THIS CLOSE.

To real permanent changes. Green energy investment, mileage standards, the Paris Accord.

This is really disheartening. This is the kind of thing that makes me the most worried about the world my daughter will have.

[mahina]

18. Same,

Here.

[bucolic_frolic]

12. Trump is surrounded by generals and oilmen

that means war

unmistakable signals, in my mind

[taught_me_patience]

13. I'm glad I live in California where we have our own standards

Middle america gets to breathe polluted shit. Reap what you sow.

[pfitz59]

17. The West Coast is lucky. The jet stream blows east.

All the states east of the Cascades and the Rockies are so screwed...

[SickAndTiredOfRepubs]

14. Fracking has positive correlation with increase in number of earthquakes in the Oklahoma

This is maybe the worst of Donald's appointments. He thinks the verdict is still out on climate change.

From the website: https://earthquakes.ok.gov/

We know that Oklahoma experienced 907 magnitude 3+ earthquakes in 2015, 585 magnitude 3+ earthquakes in 2014 and 109 in 2013. This rise in seismic events has the attention of independent scientists, citizens, policymakers, media and industry. See what information and research state officials and regulators are relying on as the situation progresses.

Again, I think this is the absolute worst decision yet!

[Midnight Writer]

15. I hope and pray the Democrats will push this very issue so hard the media cannot ignore it

I have spoken with my conservative friends about this very topic, informing them that fracking causes earthquakes.

They think I am out of my mind. They absolutely believe that this is just fringe left-wing America hating propaganda.

[Pachamama]

16. Guess that meeting with Al Gore and Ivanka Trump was a huge success

Unbelievable....

Al Gore meets with them to discuss what is perhaps the serious survival of the human race on the planet and this is days later Trump's response....



Actions do speak louder than words