On Dec. 7, President-elect Donald Trump said he will nominate Scott Pruitt to be the next Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Pruitt will lead the agency that regulates pesticides and avgas and establishes the Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires corn be used in transportation fuel, thereby raising the price and demand of corn.

 

But who is Scott Pruitt, what is his background, and what would his confirmation mean for ag aviators? 

 

Edward Scott Pruitt is a Republican politician and lawyer from Oklahoma who attended Georgetown College in Kentucky and then earned his J.D. from the University of Tulsa. After practicing law for several years, Pruitt won a seat in the Oklahoma State Senate, a position he held for eight years. In that same period, Pruitt became the General Managing Partner of the Oklahoma RedHawks (a Triple-A baseball team), lost a congressional race and lost a lieutenant governor race.

 

In 2011, Pruitt was elected to be Oklahoma’s attorney general. As attorney general, Pruitt was an advocate of federalism—the belief that states should have greater jurisdiction than they do presently, while the federal government should have less—and created a “federalism unit” in the attorney general’s office to fight what he sees as federal overreach. Pruitt thereby initiated many lawsuits against the federal government on behalf of Oklahoma, such as lawsuits against EPA to block federal regulations like the Clean Power Plan, which would limit carbon dioxide emissions, and the Waters of the U.S. rule, which would expand Clean Water Act regulations to ditches, creeks, wetlands and other areas.

 

To sum up Pruitt’s view of how he plans to run the EPA, he has been quoted saying, “The American people are tired of seeing billions of dollars drained from our economy due to unnecessary EPA regulations, and I intend to run this agency in a way that fosters both responsible protection of the environment and freedom for American businesses.”

 

This statement, along with his lawsuit against the Waters of the U.S. rule, is good news for aerial applicators who would see regulatory costs rise should that rule go into effect. Pruitt is also likely to support a repeal of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Pesticide General Permit (PGP) requirements for applicators, which will ease the regulatory burden for operators who have contracts for mosquito applications. Moreover, Pruitt is unlikely to implement carbon taxes on the aviation industry—something President Obama’s EPA had advocated.

 

While Trump has said that Pruitt will be pro-ethanol, the nominee has been critical of the Renewable Fuel Standard in the past, going so far as to file an amicus curiae brief with the Supreme Court in 2013. Pruitt argued that EPA ignored the risks that gasoline with over 10 percent ethanol poses to cars’ fuel systems and the standard’s effect on food prices. In a statement at the time, Pruitt claimed, “The evidence is clear that the current ethanol fuel mandate is unworkable,” and called the standard a “flawed program.” Still, with Trump’s vocal support of the standard, it’s unlikely Pruitt would have the political muscle to significantly reduce that program.

 

Four years ago, Pruitt would have needed 60 senators to vote for his confirmation to become the head of EPA. However, Sen. Harry Reid rammed through several controversial rules in 2013 that allow presidential nominations (except Supreme Court nominations) to be confirmed with just 51 votes. Since Republicans have 52 seats, they are expected to confirm Pruitt with relative ease.