President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as his Environmental Protection Agency Administrator. Pruitt has spent much of his energy as attorney general fighting the agency he is being nominated to lead, according to the Washington Post. He is suing the EPA over climate change rules and is vastly opposed to the Waters of the U.S. rule, also vastly opposed by agriculture.
American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duval says the selection of Pruitt to lead the EPA is “welcome news” for farmers and ranchers. Duvall says Pruitt: “Should help provide a new degree of fairness for U.S. agriculture.”
Pruitt is also a critic of the Renewable Fuel Standard. He argued in a 2013 Supreme Court brief that EPA ignored the risks of gasoline blended with more than 10 percent ethanol poses to fuel systems of vehicles, and the mandate’s effect on food prices.
(From the National Association of Farm Broadcasters News Service)