WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.) made the following remarks in response to the announcement that President-elect Trump would nominate Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to be the next Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

“I believe strongly in the cabinet confirmation process – including giving every nominee a fair and timely hearing. To that end, as a senior member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, I will listen to what Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has to say about his vision for the EPA.

“However I am concerned about this nomination. Mr. Pruitt has made a name for himself out of denying the very existence of climate change. Now President-Elect Trump has selected him to lead the agency charged with addressing it. Mr. Pruitt has made a career out of suing the EPA. Now he wants to run the agency.

“I find Mr. Pruitt’s selection for EPA Administrator troubling, both for the future of environmental justice in this country, as well as for what it signals more generally about President-Elect Trump’s relationship with science and established fact.

“I will strongly dispute any nominee who denies the sum of empirical science and the very existence of climate change.”