Pruitt: EPA Lawsuits About The ‘Rule of Law’
Pruitt says regulators targeting fossil fuel industry
By RANDY KREHBIEL World Staff Writer
Decisions by the Environmental Protection Agency and other Obama administration regulators are largely driven by an anti-fossil fuel agenda, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt told a meeting of oil and gas executives at the Mayo Hotel on Friday morning.
“Whether it’s EPA through (carbon standards), EPA through regional haze (regulations) or Fish and Wildlife through endangered species, what we see is a regulatory approach that says ‘Fossil fuels are bad, and we’re going to do all we can to elevate renewables.’”
Even threatened or endangered species designations are dictated by attempts to discourage oil and gas production, Pruitt said, and cited the case of the lesser prairie chicken.
In May, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated the bird as a threatened species, prompting lawsuits from environmental groups that wanted it listed as endangered, and agriculture and energy interests averse to the regulations that go with protected status.