Washington: The new head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, told agency staff yesterday that America should not have to choose between the economy and the environment.
As the White House prepares executive orders to roll back Obama-era green regulations, Pruitt struck a conciliatory tone in an address to agency staff, saying he would “listen, learn and lead.”
“I believe that we as a nation can be both pro-energy and jobs, and pro-environment. We don’t have to choose between the two,” he said in his first speech to EPA workers since he was confirmed as administrator by the US Senate last week.
“I think our nation has done better than any nation in the world at making sure that we do the job of protecting our natural resources, and protecting our environment, while also respecting economic growth,” he told the room of about 70 staff at EPA headquarters in Washington.
Many Republican lawmakers view Pruitt, who sued the agency he now leads more than a dozen times as the attorney general of Oklahoma, as a refreshing change at the top of an agency they accuse of federal overreach and killing jobs.
But Democrats and many others worry his appointment signals a reversal in America’s progress cleaning up air and water and fighting global climate change.
