WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed Scott Pruitt on Friday to run the Environmental Protection Agency, putting a seasoned legal opponent of the agency at the helm of President Trump’s efforts to dismantle major regulations on climate change
and clean water — and to cut the size and authority of the government’s environmental enforcer.
Democrats railed all night on the Senate floor against Mr. Pruitt
and urged Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, to delay the confirmation vote until after next Tuesday, when the Oklahoma attorney general’s office is under order to release about 3,000 of Mr. Pruitt’s emails related to his communications with the fossil fuel industry.
Senators voted 52 to 46 to confirm Mr. Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general who has built a career out of suing to block the E. P.A.’s major environmental rules
and has called for the dissolution of much of the agency’s authority.
One Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, crossed party lines to vote against Mr. Pruitt, while two Democrats, Joe Manchin III of West Virginia
and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, both from coal-rich states where voters generally oppose environmental rules, voted for him.
Pruitt has been nominated by a man who, as a nominee, as a president-elect
and now as president, has made clear his goals to degrade and destroy the E. P.A.,” Mr. Carper said.