“The endangerment finding ultimately undermines all the climate rules Obama sought to impose,” Burnett continued. “If all Trump does is revisit the Clean Power Plan and the fuel economy standard and withdraw it, environmentalists can just go to court and say, ‘This is an endangerment to human health-you’ve got to do something.’ I think the courts will say, ‘You know, you’re right.'” He notes the endangerment finding poses a legal problem for his organization’s ambitions of gutting the EPA as we know it. “My belief is if he doesn’t ultimately get rid of the endangerment finding it undermines all the good work so far,” Burnett said. But he was firm that the endangerment finding still must go. Sterling Burnett of the Heartland Institute-the right-wing think tank that is best known for pushing out misinformation on climate change-rattled off reasons he’s happy with what Pruitt and the Trump administration have done so far in their reversal of a Clean Water Act rule and clearing the way for the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines.

The endangerment finding is a science-based determination, prompted by a Supreme Court decision in 2007, that is the foundational basis for the agency’s regulatory work on climate change.Īnalyst H. And that’s just for starters.Īs I previously reported, one issue tops climate change deniers’ wish list for the Trump administration, and that’s gutting the climate endangerment finding. Climate change deniers think Pruitt hasn’t gone far enough or fast enough or stood his ground defending their position on the science. But the same week the Trump administration rolled out its executive order targeting the Obama administration’s work on climate change, Pruitt also faced an onslaught of unexpected criticism from the far right. In only a few short weeks, Breitbart‘s tone shifted, so by the end of the month, the news site, described by Trump adviser Steve Bannon as “the platform for the alt-right,” warned, “If Scott Pruitt is not up to that task, then maybe it’s about time he did the decent thing and handed over the reins to someone who is.”Ĭriticism from the left and center was inevitable for a former attorney general who challenged environmental rules on 14 occasions. The far right’s opinion of Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt has plummeted since the time Breitbart News praised him for doing “the Lord’s work” in early March.

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