The Obama administration declared “war” on coal and fossil fuels with its environmental regulations and participation in the Paris climate accord, Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt says.
In an interview that aired Sunday with radio host John Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable,” Pruitt hailed President Donald Trump for putting “America first in all areas of our economy.”
"In the past administration, they created tremendous uncertainty by adopting rules and regulations that were an over-reach,” Pruitt said, adding: “Declaring war on any sector of our economy just doesn't make sense at all. But that's exactly what happened with the past administration.”
According to Pruitt, “the past administration declared war on coal [and] fossil fuels, despite the fact that those energy sources are tremendously important to us as a country to generate electricity, to keep costs low, and provide stability to our citizens.”
Pruitt also defended Trump’s stance on the climate agreement signed last year to reduce greenhouse gas emissions around the world — saying it wasn’t an “America-first” policy.
"The Paris Accord was not good for this country. It was not an America-first approach," Pruitt said. "Why would we as a country go to that type of meeting [in Paris] with the kind of [environmental] progress we've made and be apologetic?"
"[China and India] are polluting [but] don't [have to] take any steps until the future," he added. "And sometimes not at all? That is just a bad deal for this country."
The EPA administrator said past policies have only engendered an atmosphere that made the agency a “political football.”
"For the last several years, this agency has become kind of a political football,” he said.
"We need to get back to improving air quality, improving water quality... That’s some of the best work we can do,” he explained “And that has been under-emphasized for the last number of years.”
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