Greens’ ads hit EPA pick on pollution rules, earthquakes

The Sierra Club is launching a new advertising campaign pushing senators to vote against President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt.

The digital video campaign is running in 14 states with senators who environmentalists want to try to sway, and in Washington, D.C.

It’s the second Sierra Club ad campaign targeting Pruitt, who has also drawn the ire of numerous other environmental groups, like the Environmental Defense Action Fund, the League of Conservation Voters and 350.org.

{mosads}The Sierra Club’s campaign comprises two ads, including one calling Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general, “one of the most hostile, outspoken opponents of EPA’s clean air and water protections in history” and saying that Pruitt would not fulfill the EPA’s responsibilities.

The other ad focuses on the sharp increase in earthquakes in Oklahoma caused by the oil and natural gas drilling process during Pruitt’s tenure since 2011.

It features Oklahoma residents who have suffered from the earthquakes, linking the earthquakes to Pruitt’s decision to close his office’s environmental enforcement unit while taking $250,000 in fossil fuel industry donations.

“Never has someone been put forward to run the Environmental Protection Agency who is as unfit and dangerous as Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt,” Michael Brune, the Sierra Club’s executive director, said in a statement.

“The American people deserve to know about Pruitt’s history of ignoring environmental concerns plaguing Oklahoma with reckless abandonment, and his failure to act except to sue the agency he’s been tapped to lead,” he said.

The group said it has not finalized how much it will spend on the campaign, but it will be a “sizable” cost.

Pruitt is likely to pass through the confirmation process, since the Senate has 52 Republicans and none has committed to voting against him.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which is responsible for considering Pruitt’s nomination, will host him for a hearing Jan. 18.