Farm Bureau Supports Scott Pruitt in Washington Post

A Monday article in the Washington Post casts Scott Pruitt, President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination for head of the Environmental Protection Agency, as opposing the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay. The Oklahoma attorney general was one of 21 state AGs who supported a lawsuit filed by AFBF and Pennsylvania Farm Bureau alleging that EPA exceeded its Clean Water Act authority by mandating maximum levels for nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment runoff in the bay. The EPA “diet” set specific allowances for farms, construction and development activities, as well as homeowners and towns throughout the 64,000 square mile Chesapeake Bay watershed. Farm Bureau maintains that Congress reserved such land use decision-making exclusively for the states.

“Mr. Pruitt’s strong suit is he comes from a state agency,” Don Parrish, AFBF’s senior director of congressional and regulatory relations, told the Post. Further, “He wants to work collaboratively with the states and be a little less top-down” compared to the Obama administration, according to Parrish.

Pennsylvania Farm Bureau’s Mark O’Neill stressed PFB’s support for Pruitt in the article, saying he “will provide some common-sense leadership to the agency to work to improve the environment without creating unnecessary and unlawful regulations that threaten the livelihood of farm families across the United States.”

Read the full article, "Trump’s nominee to head EPA has opposed the Chesapeake Bay cleanup," here.