NJ League of Conservation Voters Statement on the Nomination of Environmental Foe to Lead the EPA

​The New Jersey League of Conservation Voters very strongly objects to the nomination Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a staunch fossil fuel ally, as President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
 
“This is absolutely the wrong direction for our country,” said Ed Potosnak, executive director of New Jersey LCV, the state’s leading political voice for the environment. “Trump's statement that climate change is a hoax directly contradicts reams of scientific data showing that burning oil, coal and natural gas is a major contributor to global warming. This nomination puts both the Paris Accord and Clean Power Plan in peril.” 
 
New Jersey has a proud history of environmental leadership, which includes more than 1 million acres of preserved land, protections for the Highlands and Pinelands regions and two recent picks to run the EPA from both political parties, who were committed to the mission of protecting our environment: Gov. Christie Whitman and DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson. Trump’s nominee, by contrast, is a longtime critic of the agency he’s been tapped to run.
 
“With an anti-environmentalist headed to the White House, New Jersey’s 2017 governor’s race takes on added urgency, and New Jersey LCV is all in to ensure our next governor is America's Greenest,” added Potosnak. “Our country, our state, our children and our future depend on electing and supporting leaders who are 100% committed to clean, renewable energy, sustainability, and safeguarding our water supply.”