Picking Pruitt for EPA, Trump Signals Campaign Attacks Against Public Health Will Become Policy

WASHINGTON –  The nation’s public health protection laws, including those in place to reduce pollution in our air, land and water, will be under withering assault with President-elect Donald Trump’s apparent pick of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to run the Environmental Protection Agency, said EWG President Ken Cook.

“Many of the counties and regions that voted for Mr. Trump have some of the dirtiest air and water in the country, and with Mr. Pruitt as head of the EPA, it will get even worse for those communities,” Cook said. “Nobody voted for dirty air and water – including the millions who supported Trump, but that’s what Americans will get under a Pruitt EPA.”

“There has been no bigger antagonist from the states against efforts to protect public health than Pruitt. He’s sued the EPA repeatedly over the agency’s efforts to reduce the number of children who are exposed to dangerous air pollutants that can diminish brain development or trigger asthma attacks, and he has targeted programs to protect vital drinking water sources for millions of people, mostly in rural areas of the country.”

“During the campaign, Mr. Trump regularly threatened to dismantle the EPA and roll back many of the gains made to reduce Americans’ exposures to industrial pollution, and with Pruitt, the President-elect would make good on those threats.”  

“It’s a safe assumption that Pruitt could be the most hostile EPA administrator toward clean air and safe drinking water in history,” Cook said. 

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