LEWISTON — Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine is going to vote against President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

He tells Maine Public Radio that he’s found no record of the Oklahoma attorney general taking “affirmative and strong” actions to enforce environmental law. He also he says he’s concluded Pruitt’s anti-regulatory positions reach the level of “undermining the fundamental mission of the agency.”

During his confirmation hearing, Pruitt told senators on Wednesday that climate change is real, backing away from his past statements and contradicting Trump’s statements.

But King said he takes the environment seriously and “cannot approve the appointment of someone who is so manifestly opposed to the mission of the agency.”

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