Environment Group Launches Ad Campaign Against OK AG Scott Pruitt

<p>In a new television and online ad campaign, the environmental group, Clean Air Moms Action, is taking aim at Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt.</p>

Wednesday, January 4th 2017, 6:27 pm

By: Grant Hermes


In a new television and online ad campaign, the environmental group, Clean Air Moms Action, is taking aim at Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt.

Pruitt was named as Trump's choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency in December.

The ad brings up a brief Pruitt wrote to a federal court in 2012, about whether mercury in water is dangerous for children. Mercury most often seeps into foods like fish through run off from power plants. In 2011, the Food and Drug Administration began working with the EPA to reduce the amount of run-off after higher levels of mercury were found in newborns.

“To see [Pruitt] be nominated to head an agency where he is going to need to protect those basic American rights of clean air and clean water is very concerning to moms like myself,” said Gretchen Dahlkemper, Clean Air Moms Action director.

The group is funded by the Environment Defense Fund.

Pruitt has sued the EPA a dozen times in the past. His nomination was criticized early by Democrats and environmentalists for having close ties to the energy industry in Oklahoma and denying mainstream science on the existence of climate change.

“First, we want a nominee that respects environmental law. Second, we want a nominee who respects science and scientific consensus from across the country and across the world, and third, we want a nominee who puts the health of our families and communities ahead of the profits of polluters,” Dahlkemper said.

Several groups have also begun to come out in support of Pruitt’s nomination. The right-wing group American Rising Squared or AR2 released this statement about the push against Pruitt. 

"It's not surprising that an extreme liberal group like this would oppose an EPA Administrator committed to following the law rather than imposing a job-killing agenda through questionable rule-making and executive actions, as we've seen for the last eight years under President Obama,” AR2 Executive Director Brian Rogers said. “Scott Pruitt is serious about reforming the EPA so that clean air and clean water are protected without imposing legally dubious and burdensome regulations that threaten the livelihoods of hardworking Americans.”

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe chairs the environment and public works committee and has come out strongly in favor of Pruitt's nomination. That is one of the reasons the ad won't be running here. Instead, it'll be running in seven other states and Washington D.C. where the group thinks senators might be swayed.

“We hope to show our opposition and there are candidates out there who would be good EPA administrators under the Trump administration,” Dahlkemper said.

When this article was written Inhofe was the chair. The current chair is now Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming. 

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