Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has been sworn in to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
Republicans cheered the 48-year-old lawyer as the ideal pick to roll back environmental regulations they say are a drag on the nation’s economy. Democrats and career EPA employees decried him as dangerous for the environment.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said earlier Friday that “the EPA will no longer spend unnecessary taxpayer dollars on an out of control anti-energy agenda.”
As Oklahoma’s attorney general, Pruitt filed lawsuits challenging EPA regulations such as limits on carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants and expansion of water bodies regulated under the Clean Water Act.