Governors, state AGs ask EPA head Pruitt to scale back federal overreach

Watchdog discusses Scott Pruitt’s new role in the EPA with regards to over regulation

The state officials ask Pruitt in the letter to “consider the steps that the Agency may take to restore the principles of cooperative federalism embodied in these important statutes.”

Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told Watchdog.org the letter is justified, and timely, with the departure of the former Democratic administration.

“Even as bad as the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts are in terms of overregulation, the Obama administration has essentially treated states as serfs,” he said.

Ebell suspects the letter will be received well, given that Pruitt shared similar sentiments as attorney general of Oklahoma and head of the National Association of Attorneys General.

“He’s been making the same points for years,” he said. “I suspect he will feel very sympathetic to what they’re saying.”

But that doesn’t mean a quick reversal of EPA policies, Ebell said, nothing that while President Trump’s cabinet is coming into place at a relatively rapid pace, it’s taking awhile to get the various assistant secretaries and administrators in place.

“It will take awhile for Scott Pruitt to turn the ship around and head in the other direction, but I think he will be on board,” Ebell said.

Read the full article at Watchdog