Manufacturers Pressure Baldwin, Johnson To Vote For Trump’s EPA Nominee

A national manufacturers group is pressuring Wisconsin’s U.S. senators to back President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

A new TV ad from the National Association of Manufacturers praises the nominee, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, and urges Wisconsin residents to ask U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson to vote to approve him.

Baldwin, a Democrat, said she’s still evaluating Pruitt, but a lot of citizens are calling her office with concerns “about his record defending polluters as attorney general and representing big oil interests,” she said. “So people are already troubled by him.”

Baldwin said she’s also worried that Pruitt seems to deny the science behind climate change. Baldwin is not on the Senate committee that will hold a hearing on Pruitt’s nomination this week, but would vote on him when his nomination reaches the full chamber.

Johnson’s office did not respond to a request for comment, but the Republican previously sided with Pruitt’s criticism of several Obama administration initiatives on the environment.