Pruitt publicly threatens the EPA (the agency he runs)

Scott Pruitt, the new administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., declaring “The future ain’t what it used to be at EPA.” He delighted the crowd by vowing that the Trump administration would begin rolling back environmental regulations in an “aggressive way.” He also noted that calls to eliminate the agency in its entirety were, in his opinion, “justified.” And while Pruitt sidestepped a pointed question about just how much the EPA’s budget can be gutted, he failed to take issue with a suggestion to slash the agency’s budget by 90 percent. Pruitt also pledged that he would provide “regulatory certainty” by repealing clean air and clean water rules. And finally, when the moderator asked, “Show of hands, those of you who kind of hope that Administrator Pruitt will just sort of make the EPA go away?” Pruitt laughed. The crowd cheered.