EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt on Friday shot down reports that there were conflicting “silos” of disagreement on the decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.
“I think the process worked as it should have,” Mr. Pruitt said on “The Hugh Hewitt Show.” “It is with a very, very deliberative process. And those folks who say there were divisions or silos, is just fiction.
“[President Trump] heard a cross-section of input, and I think made a very very thoughtful decision,” the Environmental Protection Agency administrator said.
Mr. Pruitt pointed to previous criticism made by those on the left saying that there was no way to force high pollutant countries like China and India to follow through on the agreement.
“What’s crazy about this if you go back to look at the decision made in Paris at the time, there was just as much criticism on the left — that Paris did not hold India and China accountable,” he said.
Mr. Pruitt said the deal cost the United States more domestically than other countries, while not enforcing those countries.
“China and India took no steps to meet their obligation until the year 2030. That’s just nonsensical. It’s a dumb deal,” he said.
He added that the best argument to stay in the agreement was that since it was non-enforceable there was no reason to pull out, but Mr. Pruitt said it would have still cost Americans domestically.
“This idea that somehow it was simply non-enforceable or not something that could be enforced domestically, and that’s just not simply the case,” he said. “When you have decisions being made in Paris that impact the cost of electricity in this country — those types of things voters ought to have a voice [in] and that’s what the U.S. Senate ought to address.”
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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