Scott Pruitt confirmed as the head of the EPA

The former Oklahoma Attorney General is expected to change the direction of the agency.


Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has been confirmed as the next administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Senate approved Pruitt on a 52-46 vote on Friday afternoon.

The vote came after a failed Democratic attempt to delay the confirmation proceedings until after a new batch of documents from Pruitt's state office are made public under court order. Those emails will be released beginning next week.

Related: Florida lawmaker's bill would terminate EPA

Pruitt has come under fire for coordinating closely with energy companies in his attempts to scale back and block federal environmental regulations. The New York Times reported that at times, Pruitt had simply copied and pasted suggested language from energy company onto state letterhead, and then sent it to the EPA.

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Photo courtesy of the Oklahoma Office Attorney General