Trump’s Appointment of Scott Pruitt Raises Questions about EPA’s Role

Environmental partner Michael McDonough told Law360 that Pruitt will likely start by declining to fill open jobs and positions in the regional management system, recommending changes to streamline compliance programs and reduce the regulatory burden on the energy sector, and proposing significant budget cuts.

“Some of the criticism of the EPA, which I think is fair criticism, is that the EPA has sort of run amok expanding federal control and sort of taking this position that the states can’t be trusted to enact and enforce [their] own regulations,” McDonough said. “You’re going to see pullback at EPA. We’re going to allow the states to exercise local control, which by and large these [federal environmental] statutes are written to allow the states to enforce the laws locally.”

According to Law360, experts say that a Pruitt-led EPA will be more relaxed and will give states the freedom to be as aggressive as needed in their respective jurisdictions when it comes to environmental regulations. These experts also say that his selection does not mean the end for renewable energy development or emissions-reduction programs.

“In Pruitt, you have somebody who’s pretty passionate about pushing back against federal control,” McDonough said, “and that’s been made clear not just in his opposition to EPA regulations, but his opposition to Obamacare and a number of other issues he’s viewed as federal overreach.”

In McDonough’s opinion, there is nothing in federal law to prohibit states from “being laboratories for new laws, innovative laws, to determine what works, what doesn’t work.”

Read more about the reactions to Pruitt’s nomination on Law360 (subscription required).