President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency drew headlines over Pruitt's skepticism regarding mainstream climate science and his tendency to sue the agency he hopes to lead.
But advocates are also concerned about what they characterize as a pattern of cooperating with businesses at the center of environmental controversies during his tenure as Oklahoma's attorney general.
The New York Times this week particularly highlighted a spat over manure runoff from Arkansas poultry farms that floated into Oklahoma and resulted in algae blooms throughout the Illinois River watershed.
Drew Edmondson, Pruitt’s predecessor as attorney general, sued Tyson, Cargill and other poultry companies over the contamination in 2005.
The dispute lingered as Pruitt took office in 2010, and the Times reported that instead of continuing to press for financial damages or changes to the companies' waste practices, he negotiated a deal to study "the appropriate level of phosphorus in the Illinois River."
He also allowed a previous waste agreement between Arkansas and Oklahoma to expire and shut down an environmental unit within the attorney general’s office.
Critics in Oklahoma pointed out that the deal came after Pruitt received thousands in campaign contributions from poultry executives — just as Senate Democrats questioned his ties to the oil and gas industry.
Edmondson, meanwhile, told the paper that "the filing of cases alleging environmental crimes ... has largely disappeared."
A spokesman for the nominee told the Times that his office continues to hold "bad actors accountable” in Oklahoma, while Pruitt reportedly told The Oklahoman newspaper in 2015 that the poultry lawsuit was "was not a decision my office made."
“Regulation through litigation is wrong in my view,” Pruitt said in the 2015 interview.
Pruitt’s allies added that the settlement moved the dispute forward -- instead of waiting for a judge to make a decision – and argued that Pruitt, as EPA chief, hoped to shift environmental enforcement from the federal government to the states.
“Some claim Mr. Pruitt opposes clean air and water. This could not be further from the truth," a coalition of conservative groups wrote in support of his nomination.
Critics, meanwhile, countered that pollution doesn't respect state lines.
Pruitt is expected to testify before the Senate environment committee on Wednesday ahead of confirmation votes.
