WASHINGTON -- The head of the Environmental Protection Agency on Sunday defended the U.S.' exit from the Paris climate accord, saying it will benefit the country and create more jobs. Scott Pruitt also repeated his refrain that questions about President Donald Trump's personal views on climate change are beside the point.
"When we joined Paris, the rest of the world applauded ... because it put this country at a disadvantage," Pruitt told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. "It's a bad deal for this country. We're going to make sure as we make deals, we're going to put the interests of America first."
Pruitt, who stood beside Trump as the president announced the decision Thursday, faced a grilling on several Sunday morning shows. Viewed as a huge influence in Trump's decision, the former Oklahoma attorney general has taken a lead role in undoing environmental regulations imposed under former President Barack Obama's administration.
Pruitt has previously refused to say whether Trump remains skeptical of global warming -- and he dug in on Sunday when pressed repeatedly by Wallace to say whether he has discussed the topic of climate change with Trump.
"As the president's EPA administrator, isn't that a conversation you need to have?" Wallace asked.
"The focus in the last several weeks was centered on the merits and demerits of the Paris climate agreement," Pruitt responded. "The president has indicated the climate is changing; it's always changing. I've indicated the same."
When asked in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos whether he knows what the president believes, Pruitt declined to address the issue.
"Well, frankly, George, I think the whole question is an effort of trying to get it off the point," Pruitt said. The bottom line, he said, is that the Paris agreement would cost the U.S. jobs.
"We've had over 50,000 ... coal jobs, mining jobs created in this country" in the past few months, Pruitt said. "This president's deregulation agenda, particularly in the energy space, is making a substantial impact around the country."
Wallace challenged Pruitt on appearing to prioritize coal-sector jobs over green-energy jobs. "Aren't you and the president talking about protecting the horse and buggy just as cars come online?" Wallace asked.
"No," Pruitt responded. "I think what's also being missed here is when you look at how we generate power in this country, we need fuel diversity."
Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said in an interview on CNN's State of the Union that the president "believes the climate is changing. And he believes pollutants are part of that equation. So that is a fact. That is where we are."
She made similar comments on CBS' Face the Nation while declining to elaborate on the term "pollutants."
"That's as clear as I know to give it," Haley said.
"Just because the U.S. got out of a club, doesn't mean we aren't going to care about the environment," Haley said on CNN. She said the U.S. will "continue to be a leader in the environment" but will do so "under our terms."
The "club" Haley referred to comprises almost 200 countries, with Syria, Nicaragua and now the U.S. as the notable holdouts.
Information for this article was contributed by Paige Winfield Cunningham and David Fahrenthold of The Washington Post and by Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Christopher Flavelle and Toluse Olorunnipa of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 06/05/2017