In fact, an abundance of research points to the burning of fossil fuels as the key driver of warming temperatures. Pruitt said the EPA “can’t just make it up” when it decides rules to address climate change, adding that it is “hard to measure with precision” the impact of human activity on the changing climate. Photograph: Sandy Huffaker/AFP/Getty Images Should Pruitt manage to get rid of the Clean Power Plan, he will be obligated to replace it with a new policy in relation to greenhouse gases.Ī climate change rally in San Diego, California, after the Senate confirmed Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency. The supreme court ruled in 2007 that carbon dioxide can be regulated under the Clean Air Act, with the EPA determining in 2009 that CO 2 endangers human health. It is also uncertain what the EPA’s replacement plan to combat climate change will be. Trump is expected to sign executive orders to wipe out these regulations but the process will probably take several years with legal challenges expected.

Two cases fought by Pruitt led to courts freezing the Clean Power Plan and the Waters of the US rule. Last week, emails from Pruitt’s tenure in the state government were released, showing an extremely close relationship between his office and fossil fuel companies. Pruitt sued the EPA over its pollution regulations 14 times while he was attorney general of Oklahoma, often in concert with oil and gas interests. Trump has called the EPA a “disgrace” and vowed to reduce the agency to “tidbits”. But he said critics were “justified” in wanting the regulator to be disbanded. Pruitt demurred when asked if the EPA should be abolished, citing the “very important work” it does in water and air pollution that crosses state lines. I’m grateful we’ve got that kind of leader in the White House. “This president, who is leading with great decisiveness, great action, is saying we will fix that.

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