Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a climate change skeptic who fought the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations on carbon emissions, moved a big step closer to becoming that agency’s leader.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s Republicans voted 11-0 Thursday in approval of Pruitt serving as the EPA’s administrator following a boycott by Democrats. A vote by the full Republican-led Senate will make him President Trump’s point man for his plan to make the agency more industry-friendly.

Image: Scott Pruitt testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 18, 2017
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt testifies before a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee confirmation hearing on his nomination to be administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington on Jan. 18, 2017. Joshua Roberts / Reuters