The Environmental Protection Agency has been perhaps the most visible and influential organization of its kind in the world since Richard Nixon created it in 1970. Since then, it has managed a portfolio of pollution control laws and programs and provided science-based, economically reasonable environmental protection for nearly half a century.

The fear shared by many of us who have been part of the agency and its mission is that Donald Trump and his nominee to run the agency, Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt, are set on taking the EPA to a place where it may no longer be able to carry out these vital responsibilities.

EPA fears 'unprecedented disaster' for environment over Scott Pruitt pick Read more

Ask anyone at the agency what their mission is, and they will say “to protect public health and the environment.” And since 1970, Congress has enacted a series of laws designed to promote exactly that mission. The Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, what many in the field consider to be the flagship laws for controlling pollution, direct the EPA to set high standards, to back them up with good science, to see that they are implemented and to monitor progress. This mostly has worked very well: high levels of pollution control have been achieved while the economy has prospered.

Of course, the laws are not always definitive. There are recurring debates over how stringent the air and water quality standards should be, how hazardous wastes should be managed or disposed of, how to balance the costs and benefits of programs, and when the federal government or the states should have a leading role.

Still, the legal framework sets the rules of the game and the long-term goals. Political leaders will change priorities and adapt policies, but the rules and goals should be respected.

Pruitt has not been a friend of the environment. He has opposed the EPA on many issues, from its Clean Power Plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to various actions for improving air and water quality. He claims its rules have costs millions of jobs and undermined our economy.

His view on these issues may change if and when he takes office. But he or anyone else taking the top job at the EPA should keep three things in mind:

Recognize that climate change is real and a global threat. Pruitt is one of many within the Republican party who will not admit that global climate change is a pressing issue deserving a response. He asserts “the science is not settled” and the options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are too risky economically.

But the science is settled enough. Most countries recognize that that the riskier path is in ignoring the causes and effects of climate change, not in dealing with them.

Maintain a prominent federal role in environmental protection. The US system for pollution control and environmental protection was designed deliberately to give the federal government a central role, working in partnership with the states. Pollution doesn’t respect political or state boundaries. Not all states have the political will to provide basic protections, but citizens across the country are entitled to a clean environment.

Accept that a healthy economy needs a healthy environment. Claims that environmental protection harms the economy are greatly overblown and often just false. Studies show that jobs and competitiveness have not suffered as a result of laws like the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. Indeed, the positive economic effects of energy efficiency, alternative energy, safe and available water and investments in environmental technologies and innovation are substantial.

Trump won the election; he earned the right to make appointments to agencies like the EPA. That is how democracy works. Now, the US Senate has to confirm his choice. Many Democrats and surely all environmentalists will fight the appointment of Scott Pruitt with all they have. And if he is confirmed, they will apply that same opposition to any attempt to undo what was achieved over the last half century.

If the next EPA head respects the mission, the laws and the vital role that the agency plays in providing a high quality of life to the American public, we and the rest of the world all will be better off.