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EPA

Scott Pruitt says the "debate is far from settled" on climate science

US President-elect Donald Trump will

name an outspoken critic of President
Obama's climate change policies to head
the Environmental Protection Agency.
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, 48,
is seen as an ally of the fossil fuel industry.
He has been a key player in legal challenges
against EPA regulations on greenhouse gas
emissions.

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Democrats and environmentalists in the US

have expressed dismay, calling Mr Pruitt a
climate change denier.
Mr Pruitt's appointment has not yet been formally announced, but Mr
Trump's senior adviser Kellyanne Conway appeared to confirm it on
Wednesday evening.
"Attorney General Pruitt has great qualifications and a good record...
We look forward to the confirmation hearings,'' she said.
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What Scott Pruitt believes

Mr Pruitt has sued the EPA on several occasions, most recently over
Mr Obama's Clean Power Plan, which aims to reduce carbon
emissions from power plants.
He called the move "an unlawful attempt to expand federal
bureaucrats' authority over states' energy economies in order to
shutter coal-fired power plants".
And, writing in the National Review in May, Mr Pruitt said of climate

change: "That debate is far from settled. Scientists continue to

disagree about the degree and extent of global warming and its
connection to the actions of mankind."

AP

Mr Pruitt has challenged Barack Obama's plan to reduce power plant emissions

There is consensus among the majority of scientists in the field that

carbon emissions from human activities are a key driver of rising
temperatures and that the impact of climate change will be severe.
Mr Trump, in a speech on energy on the campaign trail in May,
castigated the Obama administration's environmental initiatives. He
promised to scrap "any regulation that is outdated, unnecessary, bad
for workers, or contrary to the national interest".
He also pledged to "cancel" the Paris climate deal, which came into
force in November. The landmark agreement commits governments to
moving their economies away from fossil fuels and reducing carbon
emissions in a bid to contain global temperature rise.
But last month, in an apparent softening, he acknowledged in a
meeting with the New York Times that there was "some connectivity"
between human activity and climate change.

What his critics say

The news of his selection for EPA head comes as a blow to Democrats
and environmentalists.

TWITTER

"Attorney General Pruitt's reluctance to accept the facts or science on

climate change couldn't make him any more out of touch with the
American people, and with reality,'' said Chuck Schumer, the incoming
leader of the Senate Democrats.
"President-elect Trump promised to break the special interests' grip on
Washington, but his nomination of Mr Pruitt - who has a troubling
history of advocating on behalf of big oil at the expense of public health
- only tightens it."
Democrat Senator Bernie Sanders called the move "sad and
dangerous", while Fred Krupp of the Environmental Defense Fund
called Mr Pruitt "a deeply troubling choice to head the agency that
protects the clean air all Americans breathe and the clean water we
drink".
But Jim Inhofe, a Republican senator from Oklahoma who called global
warming a "hoax", said Mr Pruitt had "fought back against
unconstitutional and overzealous environmental regulations... he has
proven that being a good steward of the environment does not mean
burdening tax payers and businesses with red tape".

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