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February
16,
2017
Aloha,
When
I
heard
that
the
President
had tapped
Scott
Pruitt
to
head
the
Environmental
Protection
Agency,
I
organized
several
of
my
colleagues
to
speak
in
opposition.
With
the
Senate
debating
his
nomination
this
week,
I
wanted to
remind my
fellow
Senators,
and
people
across
the
country,
why
I
consider
this
to
be
an
environmental
emergency.
I
don't
oppose
his
nomination
because we
just
have
a
different
view
on
the
EPA,
or
because
he's
a
Republican,
or
because
he
doesn't
share
my
views
about
clean
energy. Scott
Pruitt
is
a
professional
climate
denier.
Mr.
Pruitt
has
made
his
political
bones
trying
to
shred
the
EPA's
ability
to
enforce
the
laws
that
protect
clean
air
and
water. As
Oklahoma
Attorney
General,
he
literally
copy-and-pasted
a
letter
from
a
major
oil
company
onto
official
letterhead
and
sent
it
to
the
EPA
as
his
own.
He
led
opposition
to
the
Clean
Power
Plan.
He's
sued
the
federal
government
over
a
dozen
times
to
prevent
the
implementation
of
rules
that
would
protect
our
health
and
environment.
And,
on climate
change,
the
most
significant
environmental
challenge
of
our
generation,
he's
aggressively
wrong.
Even
though
over
97%
of
climate
scientists
agree
that
the
climate
is
changing
and
humans
are
responsible, Mr. Pruitt has
said
that
the
climate
debate
is
"far
from
settled"
and
that
"scientists
continue
to
disagree
about
the
degree
and
extent
of
global
warming
and
its
connections
to
the
actions
of
mankind."
I
have
had
many
encouraging,
rational
conversations
about
climate
change
with
my
Republican
colleagues,
but
mostly
in
private.
This
vote
is the
litmus
test.
You
can't
dabble
in
conservation
or
energy
efficiency
or
vote
for
a
budget
amendment
recognizing
the
scientific
consensus
on
climate
change,
and
then
support
a
climate
denier
to
head
the
EPA.
I
know
that
sometimes
politics
is
complicated
and
the
right
thing
is
not
so
easy
to
determine.
This
is
not
one
of
those
times.
Mahalo,
Brian
Schatz
United
States
Senator |