President-elect Donald Trump’s recent choice of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency is creating concerns about sharp conflicts with Colorado’s environmentalists and advocates of legalized marijuana.

Pruitt’s career has been marked by lawsuits against the EPA for what he described as clean air and water regulations that impose on states’ rights to regulate internal issues. Among them was Oklahoma’s oil and gas industry.

For EPA opponents who view the agency as an overly burdensome regulatory entity that has hampered economic development, news of Pruitt’s appointment was welcomed.

Pruitt is an opponent of the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan and a skeptic of global warming, two things that earned him immediate criticisms from environmental advocates.

“We believe that Scott Pruitt is the wrong choice for the EPA,” Emma Spett, campaign organizer for the Denver-based advocacy group Environment Colorado, told The Colorado Statesman. “We need an Environmental Protection Agency administrator who protects our environmental laws, is guided by science when crafting and implementing policy, puts public health ahead of dirty energy special interests and has the qualifications necessary to safeguard the American public from climate change. Donald Trump’s nominee meets none of these criteria.”

His record in Oklahoma hints at possible conflicts with Colorado’s state leadership.

Gov. John Hickenlooper is an advocate of the Clean Power Plan, which consists of tough regulations to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. It also encourages alternative energy, such as solar and wind power.   

Pruitt already had one run-in with Hickenlooper over Colorado’s laws that allow sales of marijuana under regulated conditions.

In 2014, Pruitt joined with Nebraska’s attorney general to sue Colorado for legalizing marijuana. He said Colorado created an interstate “nuisance” that increased the flow of marijuana into Oklahoma.

After he lost his federal lawsuit, he appealed to the Supreme Court, asking for a court order to force Colorado to make marijuana sales illegal. He lost again.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the man who won the hearts and minds of Colorado Republican delegates during the state and national conventions earlier in the year, said in a statement he believed Pruitt’s appointment to be a good one.

“Under Obama, the EPA has run amok,” Cruz said. “Attorney General Pruitt has helped lead the fight against many of the Obama administration’s most egregious cases of lawless federal overreach on behalf of his home state of Oklahoma. I believe he will bring back common sense and a healthy respect for rule of law to the EPA. And I am confident he will work to restore the focus on EPA’s core mission of ensuring clean air and water – being good stewards of our environment for the next generations – rather than empowering bureaucratic zealots simply to kill jobs and hurt American workers.”

Other Pruitt supporters include the Oklahoma Oil and Gas Association, which praised his nomination to lead the EPA with a statement that said, “We welcome a more regulatory approach at the EPA that will give a voice to all.”

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, who is serving a vice-chair of Trump’s transition team, said in a statement, “Attorney General Scott Pruitt is a tireless advocate of the precious balance of power between state and federal governments. In his nearly six years as attorney general, he led the charge to combat the ever-increasing overreach of the Obama administration. I applaud President-elect Trump’s appointment of Scott Pruitt as head of the EPA. He will ensure states retain their decision-making policies, instead of having them transferred to the federal government.”

Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Arvada, disagrees with those assessments saying, “Given the progress we made under the Obama administration, the president-elect’s appointment of Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency is concerning. I’m disturbed with the request from President-elect Trump’s transition team for the names of Energy Department employees and contractors who worked on climate change.”

Perlmutter noted that Colorado is home to the National Renewable Energy Lab, which leads many efforts to develop renewable energy and create energy efficiencies. The lab employs more than 1,700 people.

“With Pruitt at the helm of the EPA, the U.S. – and Colorado specifically – needs to be vigilant to continue investments in clean energy, ensure environmental protections are not rolled back and protect Colorado’s clean energy workforce,” Perlmutter said.

The Natural Resources Defense Council already is trying to raise money for what its leaders perceive as upcoming legal battles with the new presidency.

“Protect our planet. Help us gear up to defend our environment and climate from the Trump presidency,” says an appeal for support on the Council’s website.

Environmentalists cite recent surveys that seem to run head-on into Pruitt’s support for the oil and gas industry.

Two-thirds of Colorado voters consider climate change to be an “extremely” or “very” serious problem, according to a Colorado College State of the Rockies poll.

The college found that 90 percent of Colorado respondents to their poll cited “clean air, clean water and environment” as factors that attracted them to the state.

A Yale Project on Climate Change Communication survey found that 66 percent of Coloradans believe there should be limits on carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants.

“It is extremely disconcerting to hear that President-elect Trump has nominated a climate denier to lead the EPA,” said Pete Maysmith, executive director of Conservation Colorado, an environmental advocacy group. “His record of putting profits ahead of people is crosswise with Colorado’s commitment to a clean future.”

He urged Colorado’s senators to vote against Pruitt when he goes before Senate confirmation hearings. Senate approval is required for any presidential Cabinet nominations.