Turns Out You Can’t Confirm Someone Who Wants to Destroy the EPA Without Angry Voters Showing Up

“Why did you vote for a man who doesn’t believe in climate change?”

JT Vintage/Glasshouse/ZUMA


On Wednesday, two GOP lawmakers from Nevada faced angry voters who complained about Trump, the GOP agenda, and Sen. Dean Heller’s vote to confirm Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Reno Gazette-Journal caught the Chamber of Commerce luncheon on video, which captures an interesting exchange about Pruitt and climate change in a county that voted 52.5 percent for Trump last fall.

A woman, who introduced herself as a military mother concerned about the environment and natural resources, asked Heller, “A few days ago you voted for Scott Pruitt for Environmental Protection Agency. Knowing his ties to big oil and gas and other polluters, what will you do to ensure the protection of our clean water and clean air?” She got a round of applause.

“I think every president has the right to put their cabinet into place, and I supported putting the cabinet into place,” Heller said, as some in the crowd of 100 began to boo. “It doesn’t mean I support all the policies. I am going to treat all the policies that come out of the Trump White House the same way I treated all the policies that came out of the Bush White House and out of the Obama White House. They are not always right, but they’re not always wrong. When a policy itself comes to my desk, I’ll take a look at it, and if it’s right, I’ll support it. If it’s good for Carson City, I’ll support it.”

Heller then touted his record on solar energy, claiming “nobody’s done more on my side of the aisle than myself to support solar energy.” He added that he “saved the solar industry” across the entire country by supporting the extension of solar tax credits in an omnibus bill. Heller might be overstating his environmental record. According to the League of Conservation Voters’ score of Heller’s votes, he had a 24 percent voting record on environment in 2016 and 8 percent in 2015. Since his vote supporting Pruitt, environmental groups have launched anti-Heller ad buys, in anticipation of his 2018 re-election bid.

Another woman called out, “Why did you vote for a man who doesn’t believe in climate change?”

“I talked to Pruitt, and he said he’s not a climate change denier,” Heller replied. “That’s what we talked about in my office…If I don’t like his policies I won’t support him. If I like his policies, I will support him.” While we don’t know what Pruitt told Heller in private, the new EPA head did pen an op-ed last year incorrectly characterizing climate change as a debate that “is far from settled.”

Rep. Mark Amodei (R), who was also speaking at the event, then took the mic from Heller (who appeared to be relieved, asking “are you tapping me out?”). Another woman asked Amodei about Pruitt’s emails from his time as Oklahoma attorney general. During Pruitt’s Senate confirmation, Democratic senators wanted to delay the vote because an Oklahoma judge ordered the attorney general’s office to turn over email communications with fossil fuel interests. But Republicans scheduled Pruitt’s vote before those emails were made public on Wednesday. The emails reveal close coordination between Pruitt and fossil fuel companies such as Devon Energy.

Amodei and Heller tried to minimize the importance of Pruitt to Nevada’s interests, though the state ranks fourth in installed solar energy and is home to a number of popular national monuments. Not to mention that Nevandans grapple with drought and extremely hot summers, and other consequences of climate change. When Amodei tried to deflect the criticism and focus on issues he sees as more relevant to Nevada, a man in the audience responded, “We are Nevada.”

Here’s the video, courtesy of Reno Gazette-Journal (the relevant exchange starts at 19:50).

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate