Story highlights Brett Talley: Under Obama, EPA has become a lawless organ of federal power, divorced from Congressional statutes meant to constrain it

He says Scott Pruitt is the right choice to fix the problem

Brett J. Talley is a lawyer, author, one-time writer for Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign and former speechwriter for Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio. He is deputy solicitor general at the office of Alabama's attorney general. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

(CNN) Any parent who has ever disciplined children knows that no matter how hard it might be, it's for their own good. The Environmental Protection Agency could use some discipline right about now.

During the Obama administration, the EPA became a lawless organ of federal power, divorced from the Congressional statutes that were meant to constrain it. If it is to be reformed, it will need the steady hand of someone who understands just how thoroughly it has gone astray. Enter Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a man who has spent the last six years pushing back on the EPA's most egregious overreaches.

Brett Talley

Given Pruitt's recent role as EPA antagonizer-in-chief, it's little wonder that some on the left have responded with howling rage to his nomination. How, they ask, can a man who has repeatedly sued the EPA now be tapped to lead it?

But even a cursory review of some of the EPA's actions over the last few years shows that only someone who thoroughly understands why the EPA is broken can hope to fix it.

Consider the EPA's Waters of the United States rule, a power grab that would have allowed the EPA to regulate nearly every stream and dry river bed in the country. The rule was so expansive that the EPA felt it necessary to specifically exclude from its jurisdiction the puddles that form in your front yard after a rainstorm.

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