The U.S. Senate confirmed President Donald Trump's pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday Feb 17,2017 over the objections of Democrats and environmentalists worried he will gut the agency, as the administration readies executive orders to ease regulation on drillers and miners.
The installation of Scott Pruitt, who sued the agency he intends to lead more than a dozen times as Oklahoma attorney general, reinforces expectations on both sides of the political divide that America will cede its position as a leader in the global fight on climate change.
Senators voted 52-46 to approve Pruitt, who was to be sworn in later on Friday afternoon at the White House.
Only one Republican, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, voted against him. Two Democrats from energy-producing states, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, voted for his confirmation.
"I have no doubt that Scott will return the EPA to its core objectives,” said Republican Senator James Inhofe, also of Oklahoma, adding the agency had been guilty of “federal overreach, unlawful rule making, and duplicative red tape,” during President Barack Obama's presidency.
The nomination of Pruitt, who sued the EPA more than a dozen times on behalf of his oil-producing state and has doubted the science of climate change, upset many former and current agency employees.
Nearly 800 former EPA staff urged the Senate to reject Pruitt in a letter this week, saying he had "shown no interest in enforcing environmental laws." Earlier this month, about 30 current employees at an EPA regional office in Chicago joined a protest against Pruitt held by green groups.
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