EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt declared Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference that "2017 is a time that is going to set the trajectory of history into the future" and vowed that "the regulatory state needs to be reigned in."
"We are going to restore power back to the people," Pruitt told a cheering crowd at National Harbor near Washington at the end of the four-day session. "We need to make sure they are recognized — and we are going to do the work that's important to advance freedom and liberty to the future.
"It's an exciting time."
The final day of CPAC also featured President Donald Trump, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — among other speakers.
The EPA chief spoke less than 10 minutes, invigorating the crowd with bold pledges to dismantle the excessive regulations of the Obama administration and return control to the states and its citizens — all the while maintaining that "rule of law matters."
"We are going to pay attention to process," Pruitt said. "Rule-making matters.
"We are not going to have 'sue and settle.' We are not going to lead that agency in a way that regulates through regulation. We are not going to bypass rule-making. We are going to advance issues," he added. "So, process matters."
Further, the EPA is going to stay out of court — and Pruitt called the approach "let's rest."
"We will make sure that we don't use the courts to regulate," he said. "Rule of law matters. Sometimes, we think it's an academic or legal content. It's not. We are going to pay attention to the rule of law, because we want to operate in the right frame of work in the law and not outside of the law, as it has happened."
Pruitt also discussed a concept called "cooperative federalism" in working with the states.
"We are going to once again pay attention to the states across the country," he told the gathering.
"I believe the people in Oklahoma, in Texas, in Indiana, and Ohio and New York and California — and in all the states across the country, they care about the air they breathe." He characterized the coming four years as a period of "hope and optimism" and "a new day of freedom" as "we roll back the regulatory state."
"As we go out into the rest of the country, know this, the folks in Washington, D.C.: Have a new attitude," Pruitt declared.
"An attitude that no longer is we are going to dictate to those across the country and tell them how to live each and every day. It's an attitude that says we are going to empower citizens in the states," he continued. "It's an idea, federalism and believing in liberty.
"We are not going to have managed liberty anymore."
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