EPA's Scott Pruitt: Critical to End Obama Era 'Regulatory Assault' on Business

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EPA chief Pruitt on rolling back Obama-era climate regulation

Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Scott Pruitt on rolling back regulations, the Paris agreement and the war on coal.

President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Scott Pruitt has a plan to roll back Obama era climate regulations which he says cost U.S. jobs--including withdrawal from the Paris climate change accord agreed in 2015 because it’s a bad business deal for the country.

“What we agreed to there, in the Paris accord, said that we had to take steps domestically to address CO2 emissions while China and India did not until the year 2030. So that cost us jobs,” Pruitt said in an interview on FOX Business Network's Varney & Co.

Pruitt said he questions the enforceability of the Paris agreement and finds the domestic approach towards pro-growth and pro-environment far more important to undoing the Obama administration’s policies, including a "regulatory assault" on the coal industry.

“When you have a war on any particular sector of our economy that effects investment, it affects long term view of whether there should be investment occurring, that changed yesterday,” he said.

President Trump said his decision to sign an executive order abolishing the Obama era climate change regulations would revive the coal industry.

Robert Murray, CEO of Murray Energy, told FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo that he has faith in the Trump administration’s ability to enforce policies that will limit the government’s role in the coal industry.

“What we need to do is have an all-of-the-above policy, and I’m willing to compete with gas, nuclear and the other low-cost means for generating electricity with our coal -- as long as the government stays out of it and allows the marketplace to make the decisions,” he said.

The EPA administrator said he is optimistic the coal sector will recover by removing the regulatory restraints that hurt the industry.

“Coal is still a reliable, stable source of generating electricity. It’s cost effective, it’s going to be able to compete right along aside natural gas and other forms of generating electricity for the first time in a long time,” Pruitt said.