Trump to tap Scott Pruitt for EPA chief

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, according to multiple reports.

The pick of Mr. Pruitt, who has sued the EPA multiple times to challenge President Obama’s regulatory agenda, is guaranteed to thrill conservatives who think the agency has overstepped its authority.

But the selection of Mr. Pruitt also will outrage environmentalists who can expect a swift rollback of regulatory actions taken by the Obama administration.

Mr. Pruitt was elected Oklahoma’s attorney general in November 2010 and has focused on restoring more regulatory oversight to states and limiting federal regulations. His lawsuits against the EPA included pending litigation to topple the agency’s Clean Power Plan, which is the centerpiece of Mr. Obama’s climate change strategy.

Environmentalists have accused him of being in league with the energy industry.

Sen. Jim Inhofe, a fellow Oklahoman and chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, welcomed the nomination. He called Mr. Pruitt a “leader and a partner on environmental issues for years.”

“Pruitt has fought back against unconstitutional and overzealous environmental regulations like Waters of the U.S. and the Clean Power Plan; he has proven that being a good steward of the environment does not mean burdening tax payers and businesses with red tape,” he said.

Sen. James Lankford, the junior senator from Oklahoma, described Mr. Pruitt was a “tireless defender of justice and law.”

“The American people deserve an EPA that rejects extreme activism and instead returns to its proper interpretation of environmental law,” he said.

The selection of Mr. Pruitt virtually guarantees the incoming Trump administration will seek to roll back the Clean Power Plan, a set of regulations designed to cut U.S. carbon emissions by about 30 percent by 2030. The plan, which requires states to develop their own methods for achieving emissions reductions, was enacted through regulations, not legislation, meaning the next president and EPA administrator can dismantle the program relatively easily.

The regulations are the cornerstone of the administration’s larger climate-change agenda, including its vow under the 2015 Paris climate-change accords that the U.S. will cut overall greenhouse-gas emissions by at least 26 percent by 2025. Without the Clean Power Plan, meeting that global pledge is not possible.

Along with other attorneys general from across the country, Mr. Pruitt has been leading the legal fight against the EPA plan.

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