AP source: Trump to tap Oklahoma AG Pruitt to head EPA

Pruitt, a 48-year-old Republican, has been a reliable booster of the fossil fuel industry and an outspoken critic of what he derides as the EPA's "activist agenda."

Environmental groups quickly denounced Trump's choice on Wednesday as a puppet of polluters, with the Sierra Club likening Pruitt's selection as EPA administrator to "putting an arsonist in charge of fighting fires."

In an opinion article published earlier this year by National Review, Pruitt suggested that the debate over global warming "is far from settled" and claimed "scientists continue to disagree about the degree and extent of global warming and its connection to the actions of mankind."

According to NASA, 97 percent of the world's climate scientists agree that the planet is getting hotter and that burning fossil fuels is the primary cause.

Sen. Jim Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican who shares Pruitt's skepticism of climate science, praised Pruitt's record of fighting back "against unconstitutional and overzealous environmental regulations."

"Respect for private property rights have allowed our nation to thrive, but with the recently finalized rule, farmers, ranchers, developers, industry and individual property owners will now be subject to the unpredictable, unsound and often byzantine regulatory regime of the EPA," Pruitt said last year.