Since 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has introduced almost 4,000 new rules and regulations. The Competitive Enterprise Institute estimates that the annual cost of compliance with EPA regulations is over $300 billion. The Clean Power Plan, the Fracking Rule, and the Ethanol Mandate are just three of the many egregious EPA directives crushing employers and employees alike.

From agriculture to manufacturing, seafood to energy – Louisiana industries have been under attack by the EPA. The agency’s out-of-control and unconstitutional regulations have limited job creation and business development in the Pelican State. Our Nation and our State deserve an EPA that will balance economic growth and the protection of our environment. That is why we need Scott Pruitt.

As Attorney General of Oklahoma, Mr. Pruitt has proven himself to be a staunch supporter of economic freedom and individual liberty. His leadership has helped to maintain the checks and balances that our Founding Fathers envisioned.

As EPA Administrator, Mr. Pruitt will defend entrepreneurship and state sovereignty – upholding the Constitution and guarding federalism. He will work with states, municipalities, and industries to reduce the delays, litigation, and red-tape burdening economic development and blocking investments. And Mr. Pruitt will end the Washington fiats that have plagued the agency for years.

Benjamin Zycher from the American Enterprise Institute succinctly opined, “The modern EPA is a massive bureaucratic interest group out of control, effectively unconstrained by law or the Constitution, a repository of environmental fanaticism utterly uninterested in the well-being of ordinary people or, for that matter, in the actual environmental effects of its edicts.”

Scott Pruitt has the knowledge, skills, and fortitude to fix this broken agency and their activist agenda. He will work with Congress to find legal solutions to the problems at the EPA. I encourage my fellow Louisianans to contact our Senators and ask they confirm Mr. Pruitt’s nomination. Doing so is a step forward on the path of economic growth and the separation of powers.

Reach Senator Bill Cassidy by phone at 202-224-5824 or online at cassidy.senate.gov, and reach Senator John Kennedy by phone at 202-224-4623 or online at kennedy.senate.gov. Together, we can improve the EPA and make Louisiana an even better place to live, work, and raise our families.