Scott Pruitt

Saying he was using "sound science in decision-making," EPA administrator Scott Pruitt denied a petition by environmental groups to ban the insecticide chlorpyrifos, widely used in agriculture but criticized as a risk to children and farmworkers. Pruitt took a "final agency action" on the chemical, "suggesting that the matter would not likely be revisited until 2022, the next time the EPA is formally required to re-evaluate the safety of the pesticide," said the New York Times.

Last summer, a federal appeals court gave the EPA until March 31 — this Friday — to decide whether to ban or allow continued use of the insecticide chlorpyrifos, used on more than 50 crops, including alfalfa, corn, peanuts and wheat. Mother Jones says the new administration "will have to make a momentous choice" in its early days in office.

President Trump will sign an executive order this week to undo President Obama’s 2015 clean-power plan, EPA secretary Scott Pruitt revealed in an interview with ABC’s This Week. The plan was designed to reduce carbon emissions in the U.S. by 30 percent from 2005 levels before 2030, in part by targeting carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants.

During an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box" program, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt said: "No, I would not agree that it (carbon dioxide) is a primary contributor to global warming." The statement was at odds with U.S. scientific agencies, who say the planet's average surface temperature is 2 degrees F higher than in the late 1800s and due largely to increased emissions of carbon dioxide and other human-caused emissions.

EPA chief Scott Pruitt, who gives little credence to man-made climate change, is packing his agency with other climate skeptics, says The New York Times. “Mr. Pruitt has drawn heavily from the staff of his friend and fellow Oklahoma Republican, Senator James Inhofe, long known as Congress’s most prominent skeptic of climate science,” says the Times.

The new head of the EPA, Scott Pruitt, told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last week that the agency’s critics are “justified” in wanting to disband it, said The Guardian. “People across the country look at the EPA at the way they look at [the Internal Revenue Service]. We want to change that. There are a lot of changes that need to take place at my agency to restore the rule of law and federalism,” said Pruitt, blaming the EPA under Obama for “regulatory

Confirmed by a 52-48 Senate roll call, Scott Pruitt begins his first workday as EPA administrator today with plans to address agency employees at midday. As attorney general of Oklahoma, Pruitt sued the EPA 14 times and was a leading opponent of its Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, a regulation that is reviled by farm groups who want to see it ditched.

With Democrats boycotting the committee for the second day in a row, the Republican majority on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved, 11-0, the nomination of Scott Pruitt to be EPA administrator. The nomination was sent to the Senate for a floor vote after Republicans suspended rules that require the presence of two minority-party members to conduct business.

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt put "the brakes" on state pursuit of a water-pollution suit against poultry processors, said the New York Times in describing how Pruitt "will have the opportunity to engineer a radical shift" in federal policy if he is confirmed as EPA administrator.

With President-elect Donald Trump figuratively looking over his shoulder, Scott Pruitt assured Farm Belt senators that he will support the Renewable Fuels Standard, which guarantees biofuels a share of the gasoline market, if he is confirmed as EPA administrator. Pruitt is state attorney general in Oklahoma, an oil-producing state, which raised questions about whether he would enforce the biofuels mandate.

The EPA has saddled farmers and ranchers with "burdensome, unnecessary and, too often, unlawful federal regulations," said the American Farm Bureau Federation in calling for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to approve Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt to lead the agency. "We desperately need an administrator who understands the challenges our farmers and ranchers face in producing safe, wholesome and affordable food for our nation and the world."

On Thursday, the U.S Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals gave the federal government 60 days to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which is widely used in agriculture but criticized as a risk to children and farmworkers.