WASHINGTON – Scott Pruitt's downplaying of carbon dioxide as the driver of global warming is an ominous first signal of how the new Environmental Protection Agency administrator will address climate change, EWG President Ken Cook said.
In an interview with CNBC today from an oil industry convention in Houston, Pruitt was asked if he believes carbon dioxide is the "primary control knob" in global warming. He replied:
I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there's tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact, so no, I would not agree that it's a primary contributor to the global warming that we see.
Here is Cook's response:
We wanted to check EPA Administrator Pruitt's comments with appropriate scientific experts but all the fifth graders we know are still in school.
Administrator Pruitt, who holds the most important environmental and public health protection job on the planet, has once again shown he’s uniquely unqualified to shoulder the responsibilities of the position. He and President Trump are the only two people on Earth standing in the way of the U.S. taking the bold actions necessary to stave off the devastation climate change is already causing worldwide. Pruitt’s comments today send a clear and ominous signal that we’re all in big trouble.
