Trump picks Scott Pruitt as the head of the EPA, the same body he sued

Could this be more ironical? President-Elect Donald Trump has picked Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the same body that the climate sceptic leader sued, as per a USA Today report.

Understandably, the Democrats and the green communities were not impressed. Hours after Trump's call, actor-environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio and the CEO of his foundation also met Trump and his team, including daughter Ivanka, and stressed on environment-related jobs to boost the country's economy.

"For too long, the Environmental Protection Agency has spent taxpayer dollars on an out-of-control anti-energy agenda that has destroyed millions of jobs, while also undermining our incredible farmers and many other businesses and industries at every turn. As my EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, the highly respected Attorney General from the state of Oklahoma, will reverse this trend and restore the EPA's essential mission of keeping our air and our water clean and safe," Trump was quoted as saying in a statement issued on Thursday (December 8) morning.

Pruitt also took the opportunity to blast the way the EPA has been run in the past. In a statement, he said the people of the U.S.A. are tired of seeing billions getting spent owing to unnecessary EPA regulations and that he planned to make the body functional in a way which protects both the environment and freedom for the country's businesses.

Pruitt has been a vehement opponent to the Barack Obama Administration's measures to tackle climate change and is a part of the legal action undertaken by various states to neutralize the Clean Power Plan, a policy of the outgoing administration to combat global warming, something about which neither Trump nor Pruitt is much convinced. So in a way, Pruitt is set to lead the body which he has opposed in principle in the past.

Senator Bernie Sanders, who many thought could have given Trump a tougher fight than Hillary Clinton in this election, said the decision to choose Pruitt who "worked closely with the fossil fuel industry" was "sad and dangerous".

Eric Mack wrote in Forbes that it was known that Trump was never going to respect Obama's legacy on climate change but the call to pick Pruitt as the head of the EPA "might not be too hot" on the former's promise of emphasizing on the environment's good health.