American Farm Bureau Federation reiterates its support of Pruitt to head EPA

The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) reiterated its support of Scott Pruitt, President Donald Trump's nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, following an article published by The Washington Post that the AFBF says “casts Scott Pruitt … as opposing the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay.”

Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general, was one of a group of 21 state attorneys general that supported a lawsuit filed by the AFBF and the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau that alleged the EPA exceeded its authority in relation to the Chesapeake Bay cleanup, the AFBF said in an article on its website.

Don Parrish, AFBF’s senior director of congressional and regulatory relations told the Washington Post that he believes Pruitt’s strengths lie in his past work in state agency. “He wants to work collaboratively with the states and be a little less top-down,” the Washington Post article said.

“Trump’s selection of Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency is welcome news to America’s farmers and ranchers — in fact, to all who are threatened by EPA’s regulatory overreach — and should help provide a new degree of fairness for U.S. agriculture,” an earlier statement on the AFBF website said. “We know that in his position as attorney general in Oklahoma, Pruitt has stood up for common-sense, effective regulation that protects the environment and the rights of the regulated community. We anticipate that as EPA administrator, Pruitt will listen to our concerns and those of others who work with the nation’s natural resources on a daily basis.”