EPA chief Pruitt dodges media questions about Trump’s climate denial

After President Trump walked away from the landmark global climate agreement, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt held a press conference in which he blew off the question of whether Trump still stands by his false claim that climate change is “a hoax.” According to Pruitt, the only reason the president withdrew from the Paris accord was because it “put us at an economic disadvantage.” Of course, Pruitt refused to say whether or how Trump weighed the economic risks posed by climate change itself. What is clear is that neither Pruitt nor Trump ever considered the fact that countless American business leaders opposed our nation's leaving the Paris climate treaty, or that clean energy workers far outnumber fossil fuel industry jobs throughout the country. Pruitt capped off his media interview by criticizing those who favor action on global warming as “climate exaggerators.” Unfortunately, it is no exaggeration that Trump’s reckless abandonment of the Paris climate agreement, for which Pruitt pushed, puts our planet at grave risk.