Nevada’s clean air and water will be at risk with Scott Pruitt leading EPA

By Elspeth Dimarzio

Friday, Jan. 13, 2017 | 2 a.m.

Over the past few years, Nevada has added thousands of clean energy jobs, ended decades of pollution on the Moapa Band of Paiutes land, and made strides in protecting our precious — and depleting — water resources. President-elect Donald Trump’s appointment of Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency threatens this progress. Pruitt is not just a run-of-the-mill conservative pick to lead the EPA; he’s a threat to its existence.

Negative rhetoric about the EPA has been a distraction from how much the agency supports Nevada and other states. In 2016, the EPA provided Nevada with nearly $35 million in grants to improve water systems, implement pollution controls and clean up environmental damage. If the EPA’s budget gets slashed — a likelihood under Pruitt — the states will have less support and resources to tap into.

The water and air protections the EPA creates — which are entirely based on science — have protected communities in Nevada from smog, water contamination and a litany of other threats. These standards also ensure communities long disenfranchised by massive fossil fuel companies aren’t left in the shadows of life-damaging pollution. For decades, the Reid Gardner Coal Plant sat neighbor to Moapa Band of Paiutes land, poisoning their air and water. If the EPA didn’t set standards to protect human health, the tribe would still be suffering. Instead, the Moapa Band of Paiutes are building clean energy on their land, creating jobs and generating revenue.

With Pruitt at the EPA’s helm, success stories like the Moapa Band of Paiutes will be fewer and far between. Pruitt has consistently shown he prioritizes the interests of fossil fuel corporations over communities. As attorney general of Oklahoma, Pruitt not only questioned the scientific consensus on climate change, but he blatantly fought on behalf of the fossil fuel industry and described himself as “a leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda.” Under his watch, a massive and toxic coal ash spill happened in Bokoshe, Okla. Residents are suffering from higher rates of asthma and the mess still sits.

Pruitt has been on a dogged pursuit against the EPA, filing suits to halt mercury pollution limits on coal plants, to stop limits on smog pollution that damages public health, and to stop the EPA’s regulations limiting methane emissions. Putting Pruitt in charge of the EPA is like putting a fox in charge of the henhouse. Pruitt cannot be trusted to fulfill the EPA’s obligation to protect Nevada’s public and environmental health.

In addition to fighting community health and environmental safeguards, Pruitt wants to gut a plan that would support the state’s emerging clean energy industry. Nevada has some of the most valuable renewable energy assets in the country and is on the cusp of becoming a leader in solar generation, energy storage and efficiency measures. There are already more than 100 solar companies employing nearly 9,000 Nevadans. Specifically, the state’s clean energy potential plus skilled workforce attracted Tesla’s gigawatt factory. And according to the National Renewable Energy Lab, wind power has the potential to meet more than 60 percent of the state’s electricity demand. Rather than taking advantage of this tremendous opportunity and securing U.S. leadership in this important industry, Pruitt wants to roll back the progress. He is part of a lawsuit to block the EPA’s efforts to enforce the Clean Power Plan, which aims to continue the United States’ leadership in the clean energy sector.

In this time of hyperpartisanship it’s important that Nevadans understand that clean air and water shouldn’t be taken for granted, and neither should the EPA’s role in ensuring this right. And rather than continuing to rely on outdated, dirty energy sources, Nevada has the potential to lead the nation in the development of a new clean energy economy. The people of Nevada deserve an EPA administrator who will protect both our public and environmental health and enable us to build a build a stronger statewide economy. Scott Pruitt is not that leader.

Elspeth Dimarzio is the Sierra Club’s Nevada organizing representative.