EPA’s Pruitt goes on a Fox Business show to promote pro-polluter agenda

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has yet to hold public meetings or be interviewed by any media other than conservative outlets. In speaking to Fox Business Network's Varney & Co, Pruitt made a number of outlandish claims about the Paris climate agreement. He started by claiming that federal climate and health protections aren’t working—a patently false statement considering that the Clean Power Plan alone is projected to prevent up to 3,600 premature deaths, 1,700 heart attacks, and 90,000 asthma attacks by 2030. Pruitt didn’t stop there. He referenced a thoroughly debunked Heritage Foundation study that says the Paris deal will cost the country “$2.5 trillion in gross domestic product over a 10-year period.” This misleading figure grossly exaggerates compliance costs and fails to account for the considerable costs of not acting on climate—which are repeatedly estimated to be much higher. Alas, what can we expect from an EPA chief with so many well-documented conflicts of interest regarding the fossil fuel industry and a network notoriously allergic to fact-checking?