Scott Pruitt Quotes

EPA can and should now focus on getting real results in the fight for clean air, land, and water.

There is a reason to have an agency called the EPA, and it has served an historical purpose I believe is vital to this country.

The EPA has performed a very important role for us all.

When you declare a 'war on coal' from a regulatory perspective, the question has to be asked: where's that in the statute? Where did Congress empower the EPA to declare a war on coal?

The EPA has a history of overreaching its authority.

Way back in 2000, the EPA was poised, and, in fact, had drafted a rule, to specially regulate pollution - water pollution and other types of pollution - from power plants, but the energy industry pushed back pretty significantly.

I will use my position as chairman emeritus on the Energy and Commerce Committee to try to bring some common sense to EPA regulations.

I don't need a strong EPA. I don't need to fund a lot of money there.

Americans who want a healthy and clean environment expect lawful, effective, and economically sound regulation - the Clean Power Plan failed on all three counts.

Prediction is a mug's game, but taking the side of water polluters has not been a winning political strategy for 50 years. Presidents Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II all undertook to weaken water regulations in the name of economic growth. They left office; the regulations remained.

It should be noted that the EPA's banning of methanol is categorically absurd from the point of view of environmental protection.

We must, we must cut the EPA's legs off. I hate to say that, because it sounds rotten, but they are choking this country to death with legislating through the bureaucracy in Washington.

By adopting the control strategy, the nation's environmental program has created a built-in antagonism between environmental quality and economic growth.

Over and over, we hear politicians say they can't spend our tax dollars on environmental protection when the economy is so fragile.

We copied laws and regulations from western countries, but enforcement remains weak, and environmental litigation is still quite near impossible.

When I appointed the Minister of the Environment to major cabinet status, the Planning and Priorities committee, the signals that that sent through Ottawa were major, because that's what the bureaucracy understands.

The issue of the environment as seen by Pope Francis is not a matter of purely scientific or, indeed, theological debate: it involves economic and political views on how the world's poor can be brought out of poverty while protecting the environment.

To deal with local pollution, China has put on the agenda the capping of coal, which has long been a sensitive issue.

Americans don't pay much attention to environmental issues, because they aren't sexy. I mean, cleaning up coal plants and reining in outlaw frackers is hugely important work, but it doesn't get anybody's pulse racing.

Nixon was a good president on the environment. Gerald Ford was good.

China's environmental conundrums will not be solved by changes within government alone. New mechanisms are needed to allow the communities which may be affected by a given plan, and citizens concerned about the environment, to join in.

All Americans have benefited from the dedicated service of Representative Henry Waxman. In every battle and in every moment that mattered most, Rep. Waxman stood up for the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the wild places we cherish.

One of the pillars of backward thinking in America is the idea that you can have jobs or you can have clean air and water, but you can't have both. That myth has been busted a thousand times, but still it lives on.

I think people really understand that clean air and clean water and not having factories dumping their emissions into the atmosphere and into the rivers and into the sea has been a very good thing for America. EPA stands watch for very important principles that go all the way back to Teddy Roosevelt.

The free market should not include the right to pollute our environment.