Scott Pruitt Scheduled to Speak at ALEC Conference in Nashville

Update (12/10/2017) - Scott Pruitt cancelled his appearance at ALEC. No reason for this was given publicly.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is scheduled to speak on Friday at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) States and Nation Policy Summit, in Nashville, Tennessee, according to a copy of the event brochure provided to Documented.

Pruitt is set to speak at ALEC at a time when the group is facing renewed criticism for its promotion of climate change denial.

On the ALEC agenda is a resolution that calls for the EPA to scrap the endangerment finding, a rule that provides the legal basis for federal action to tackle climate change.

ALEC - which receives substantial fossil fuel funding including from Peabody Energy, ExxonMobil and Koch Industries - has spent decades attacking the EPA. In recent years it has vigorously campaigned against the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, the first U.S. federal plan to reduce carbon emissions.

With Scott Pruitt leading the EPA, and Donald Trump as President, much of what ALEC and its funders have dreamed of has come true, with environmental protections and the EPA budget both being slashed. As that has happened, killing the endangerment finding has emerged as the next target for radical anti-environmental groups like the Heartland Institute.

Scott Pruitt is a former state legislator from Oklahoma, during which he was a member of ALEC and was chair of one of its nine issue task forces. Later, when Pruitt was Attorney General of Oklahoma, he filed 14 lawsuits against the EPA, including trying to block the implementation of the Clean Power Plan.

Pruitt is set to speak on Friday during lunch, in a session that also includes Republican Campaign finance lawyer Cleta Mitchell.