First EPA chief: GOP climate change denial ‘a threat to the country’

The first head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) slammed President Trump and Republicans in a new interview, saying their environmental policies and denials of the threat posed by climate change are dangerous for the U.S.

“It’s a threat to the country,” William Ruckelshaus, the first head of the EPA who was appointed under former President Nixon, told HuffPost. “If you don’t step up and take care of real problems, and don’t do anything about it, lives will be sacrificed.”

“They certainly are killing everything,” he continued.

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Ruckelshaus compared Trump’s EPA chief, Scott Pruitt, to Anne Gorsuch, a former EPA administrator under President Reagan who was held in contempt of Congress after refusing to turn over records related to the mishandling of toxic waste.

“They don’t believe in the mission of the agency,” Ruckelshaus told HuffPost. “Neither one of them did. Anne Gorsuch did not, and I don’t think Pruitt does either. They think we’re over-regulating.”

The former EPA head ripped Pruitt, saying he has an “ideological approach” to running the EPA, one “that affects the large contributors in his party in Oklahoma.” He also slammed Pruitt’s attitude toward climate change research.

“If your position is, ‘I don’t believe the science, therefore I’m going to get rid of all the scientists studying this, and let’s not mention it in any public announcement,’ that’s just crazy,” Ruckelshaus said. “What you want to do is more science.”

In October, Pruitt formally proposed repealing former President Obama’s landmark climate change rule for power plants.

Trump in June also said he would withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement, pulling back another part of Obama’s climate work.

The Clean Power Plan was the centerpiece of America’s commitment to the Paris deal.

Pruitt has also planned to hold a public debate to challenge consensus on climate change science, but that plan was put on hold last month.