Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has joined a coalition of nine attorneys general in urging the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to oppose the confirmation of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), calling him “manifestly unsuited for the role.”

The coalition wrote and signed a letter detailing its concerns, arguing that Pruitt is “openly hostile” to the EPA’s mission of working with state, local and tribal governments to protect human health and the environment, and as attorney general, has made attacking the regulations that the EPA is charged with enforcing a key priority.

“For years, Scott Pruitt has made it his mission to fight the EPA at every opportunity by questioning the science of climate change and reversing the progress we’ve made as a nation in cleaning up our air,” Healey said in a statement. “I am deeply concerned that his confirmation will lead to the dismantling of critical regulations that have allowed Massachusetts and other states to work with the federal government to protect the health and welfare of our residents.”

Pruitt has filed a number of lawsuits seeking to block enforcement of the Clean Air Act, and is a vocal critic of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan.