Resistance: Vote NO on Scott Pruitt, nominee for head of EPA

The Environmental Protection Agency was created on December 2, 1970. The mission statement of the EPA is, “to protect human health and the environment.”

The EPA oversees the following: 

• Funds the cleanup of toxic sites
• Provides air quality monitoring
• Funds and conducts water quality testing
• Conducts environmental impact studies
• Provide funding and materials for education about environmental issues
• Develops and enforces science-driven regulations to keep our ecosystems diverse, sustainable, and economically productive

America has an environmental emergency. Today, right here in our country, communities do not have access to clean drinking water. Flint, Michigan is the poster child of the crisis, but is not the only community. Forty-one states have unsafe levels of lead in their drinking water. (Source: CNBC, America's Water Crisis)

In the last five years, 18 major oil spills in the US caused millions of dollars of damage to businesses and communities that depend on clean soil and water. (Source: Wikipedia, List of Oil Spills)

History has proven that industries do not regulate themselves. The EPA is a vital program that ensures clean air, water, and soil for American communities.

Donald Trump selected Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general and a close ally of the fossil fuel industry, to run the Environmental Protection Agency.

“It’s a safe assumption that Pruitt could be the most hostile E.P.A. administrator toward clean air and safe drinking water in history,” - Ken Cook, head of the Environmental Working Group, a Washington research and advocacy organization

As Oklahoma Attorney General, Mr. Pruitt has a frightening record of destroying the environment:

• Created a “federalism unit” explicitly designed to fight environmental regulations
• Fought environmental regulations on the oil and gas companies
• Worked secretly with some of the largest oil and gas companies to try to overturn regulations on air emissions, water pollution and endangered animals
• Filed an anti-regulatory lawsuit with Oklahoma Gas and Electric, Domestic Energy Producers Alliance, and Devon Energy

(Source: NYTimes, Trump Picks Scott Pruitt, Climate Change Denialist, to Lead EPA)

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/07/us/politics/scott-pruitt-epa-trump.html?_r=0

Contact these Senators today

Heads of US Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works:

John Barrasso

Phone: 307-772-2451

http://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/office-locations

Tom Carper (has adamantly opposed Pruitt’s nomination – thank him!)

Phone: (302) 573-6291

https://www.carper.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/email-senator-carper

If one of your senators is a member of the US Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, please contact them today. Member  List

http://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/members

List of US Senators: http://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/

Washington State Senators:

Senator Maria Cantwell

Phone: (202) 224-3441

https://www.cantwell.senate.gov/contact/email/form

Senator Patty Murray

Phone (202) 224-2621

https://www.murray.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contactme

Transcript for phone/email:

Hello Senator _____,

Please vote NO on Scott Pruitt, nominee for the head of the EPA.

Clean air, soil, and water is not a privilege, but a basic human right.

Attorney General Scott Pruitt of Oklahoma has built his career suing the EPA, and challenging federal action to control pollution. As a result, his home state of Oklahoma now experiences hundreds of damaging earthquakes a year due to fracking activities.

At a time when climate change and pollution threatens the entire planet, we need leaders who are willing to move away from the old technology of fossil fuels and direct our country’s energy production towards renewable, affordable, clean energy options.

(Your Name)