Washington, D.C. – Today, Congress confirmed Scott Pruitt as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency - an agency he sued 14 times as attorney general of Oklahoma. Pruitt’s confirmation moved forward despite Tuesday’s pending release of thousands of emails from Pruitt’s time as Oklahoma attorney general.

Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said today:

“We wouldn’t want the Marlboro Man to serve as Surgeon General, yet today the Senate confirmed someone as head of the Environmental Protection Agency whose main qualification is years of filing lawsuits that would harm public health and weaken clean air and water safeguards. All Americans need clean air and clean water and we deserve a committed cop on the beat. Scott Pruitt’s record shows he’s unwilling to fulfill these responsibilities.

“If Administrator Pruitt focuses on solutions to our most pressing natural resource challenges, he will find a partner in the National Wildlife Federation. If, however, he takes the tact he did as Oklahoma Attorney General and aims to tear down the fundamental, science-based safeguards that protect Americans’ public health and natural resources, the National Wildlife Federation will stand up for America’s bipartisan conservation values. Our millions of members are mobilizing on-the-ground in every corner of our nation to ensure that Congress and the administration hears the voices of all Americans who care about the health and wellbeing of their families, our wildlife and natural resources, and our outdoor heritage.”

Pruitt was the first presidential nominee that the National Wildlife Federation opposed in its 80-year history because he did not pass NWF’s three part test to evaluate nominations. Read full text of Collin O’Mara’s op-ed on Pruitt in The Hill.