Will Stone/KJZZ

The Sierra Club's Sandy Bahr speaking at press conference with other environmental advocates in 2017.

Conservation advocates in Arizona are calling on their senators to push back against proposed cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency and plans to roll back regulations.

From the confirmation of former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, who aggressively sued the EPA, to a budget that ends funding for climate change programs like the Clean Power Plan, environmental advocates in Arizona are deeply concerned. They feel the state’s members of Congress, especially U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, should stand up to his fellow Republicans who would like to dramatically reduce environmental regulations.

“At one time, Senator Flake showed he was willing to disagree with Donald Trump’s agenda. We would like to him to get back to that and to recognize Arizona needs clean air and clean water," Sandy Bahr, head of the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter, said on Friday at a gathering in downtown Phoenix.  

Flake voted to confirm Pruitt as head of the EPA and said he believed the agency’s “litany of overreaching regulations had strained the state’s 'economic competitiveness.'"

Sen. John McCain skipped the vote but had expressed support for Pruitt.