Scott Pruitt Could Tip Regulatory Power From EPA to States

Bloomberg BNA discusses Scott Pruitts nomination as the EPA Administrator with William Yeatman. 

A Pruitt EPA may be less inclined toward “pushing the states around,” William Yeatman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told Bloomberg BNA. The could mean speedier approvals of state plans to implement environmental regulations and more deference to how states go about meeting those goals. That would be in contrast to an Obama EPA that was quick to issue federal plans instead, Yeatman said.

For example, Pruitt in 2011 launched an unsuccessful legal challenge against the EPA’s disapproval of Oklahoma’s regional haze plan. Pruitt argued that the EPA’s disapproval of that plan and decision to implement a federal plan for improving visibility in national parks and protected areas “usurped the right” of Oklahoma to set its own energy policy.

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Yeatman predicted Pruitt would also be extremely deferential to states, even those that choose to pursue policies on greenhouse gases, while Dunn said a key area to watch in the coming months is how strongly Pruitt would advocate on behalf of states in a key area of water regulation.

Read the full article at Bloomberg BNA.