EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt drives a truck.
“I come from a part of the country where we like to drive,” he told a crowd of conservatives Friday morning, laughing in implicit acknowledgment of the unusual choice for an environmentalist.
But in Pruitt’s ideal world, that just wouldn’t be funny.
The former Oklahoma attorney general is determined to dissolve what he sees as a false choice between the environment and the economy.
Echoing the sentiments he expressed in his first remarks to EPA staffers, on Friday Pruitt declared to the crowd at National Review Institute’s annual Ideas Summit, “I reject that you can’t be pro-growth and pro-environment.”
“We allow ourselves as a country to buy into a belief that if you’re pro-environment, you’re anti-energy and if you’re pro-energy, you’re anti-environment,” Pruitt said.
He continued, “We should dispel with this notion that you can’t be both.”
Despite what his opponents may believe, Pruitt reaffirmed his conviction that “there is an important role” for the EPA, pointing specifically to air and water issues that cross state lines.
Like he did in his first remarks to his new staff, Pruitt decried the country’s impulse to “put on jerseys” and identify with presumptively conflicting teams. “We don’t have political dialogue in this country anymore,” he complained.
Now, in his role at an agency he once sued, Pruitt wants to “bring people together” to achieve an agenda that is both pro-growth and pro-environment.
Whoever says you can’t have your cake and eat it too, Pruitt quipped, “doesn’t know what you do with cake.”
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
