President-elect Donald Trump has picked Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a frequent critic of the Obama Administration, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
Pruitt, 48, has emerged as a hero to conservative activists. He is one of a number of Republican attorneys general who have formed an alliance with some of the nation’s top energy producers to push back against the Obama regulatory agenda and has challenged many of President Barack Obama’s regulations. He helped lead the legal charge against the Clean Power Plan carbon rule, which he said tramples on states’ rights. A constitutional lawyer, Pruitt also led more than two dozen states in challenging the EPA’s Waters of the United States rule, which is now on hold waiting a court hearing date.