Pruitt to EPA Employees: No Need To Choose Between Jobs And Environment

"In his first full work day as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt made clear Tuesday that he intends to step back from what he sees as the agency’s regulatory overreach during the Obama administration.

Pruitt, who spent years criticizing and suing the EPA before becoming its newest leader, reiterated an argument he often had made as Oklahoma attorney general.

“The only authority that any agency has in the executive branch is the authority given to it by Congress,” he said during a noon address to employees at the agency headquarters. “We need to respect that. We need to follow that. Because when we do that, guess what happens? We avoid litigation. We avoid the uncertainty of litigation and we reach better ends and outcomes at the end of the day.”

Pruitt himself was the source of some of that legal conflict in recent years, suing the agency more than a dozen times over the course of President Barack Obama’s two terms. "

Brady Dennis and Chris Mooney report for the Washington Post February 21, 2017.

SEE ALSO:

"Video and Transcript: Scott Pruitt Addresses EPA Employees" (NewsOK)

"Pruitt Enters EPA with Conciliatory Words, But Staff Braces for Steep Cuts" (InsideClimate News)

"'Condescending and Hypocritical': An EPA Staffer Blasts Scott Pruitt's First Speech" (Mother Jones)

"Scott Pruitt Goes After Critics, EPA In His First Speech To The Agency" (Huffington Post)

"EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt Did Not Mention Climate Change Once In His First Speech To the EPA" (Think Progress)

"EPA's Scott Pruitt Doesn't Mention Climate In Addressing His Agency For The First Time" (Mashable)
 

Source: Washington Post, 02/22/2017