EPA chief’s climate change denial is easily refuted by the EPA’s website
President Trump’s announcement that he would appoint Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency set off alarm bells among those who track climate science. Pruitt had repeatedly sued the EPA in his role as attorney general, defending the fossil fuel extraction industry that is critical in his state. Moving to the national level can have a moderating effect on people, though, once the scale of their responsibilities expands from just one state to the United States as a whole.
That moderation has apparently not affected Pruitt.
In a truly remarkable exchange on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday, Pruitt rejected the established scientific connection between carbon dioxide emissions and the warming climate — a connection that, even as he spoke, was accurately described on the EPA’s “Climate Change: Basic Information” page.