iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, has begun his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill.
He was expected to tell the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works that it will be an “absolute privilege” to lead the agency that he sued 14 times as Oklahoma’s attorney general, according to excerpts from his planned opening remarks.
“It will be my absolute privilege to work with the thousands of dedicated public servants at EPA who have devoted their careers to helping realize this shared goal,” he was expected to say. “I’ve always said that if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life, and I know those who work at EPA do so because of their tireless dedication to what they do.”
The Kentucky native, 48, was expected to receive tough questioning from Democrats over his multiple suits against the EPA (some of which are still active) and his self-description as “a leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda” on the attorney general website.
He was also likely to receive questions about his views on global warming, which he has argued is not a scientifically settled phenomenon.
“Healthy debate is the lifeblood of American democracy, and global warming has inspired one of the major policy debates of our time,” Pruitt wrote in a National Review opinion piece.
“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.”
Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.