Last Friday Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to become the next Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. This is seriously great news. In 2014 MDN editor Jim Willis moderated a panel discussion at an industry summit held in Oklahoma City and heard Mr. Pruitt in person. Here’s what Jim said at that time: “Be sure to watch the very first video on the Midcontinent page. It is the keynote delivered by Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt. Jim just about stood up to cheer when he talked. Wow! We later joked (in the third session) that we’d be happy to trade our AG in NY for Pruitt any day of the week. Pruitt’s talk was outstanding.” (See Oil & Gas Awards Summits, Looking Back & Looking Forward [Video]). Ever since he was nominated we’ve been jazzed. The EPA under Obama has been a rogue, out-of-control agency. A labor union representing more than 9,000 EPA employees actively opposed Pruitt’s confirmation. We personally think those 9,000 employees should be fired. Reagan did it with recalcitrant air traffic controllers when their union went on strike–and air traffic control is a whole lot more important when it comes to the daily safety of Americans than the EPA. If the employees try to block Pruitt from doing his job–out they go. At any rate, when the final Senate vote was tallied, RINO Susan Collins of Maine once again showed she’d rather be a Democrat than a Republican, voting against Pruitt. On the other side, two scared-to-death-they-won’t-win-reelection-next-year Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, voted for Pruitt. Mysteriously, the EPA website now welcomes their new Administrator with open arms (funny how that works). Today will be his first day on the job since yesterday was a holiday. Pruitt has already said that Obama’s Clean Power Plan and horrible Waters of the United States regulations are toast. Let the swamp draining begin!…
