By TIM PEARCE
Energy Reporter
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt pointed out a seldom discussed issue on Wednesday with former-President Barack Obama’s climate policy.
Pruitt sat before the House Committee on Appropriations to defend the EPA’s 2019 budget Wednesday afternoon after getting grilled in another hearing that morning. Democrat Rep. Chellie Pingree questioned Pruitt’s stance on climate change and rebuked the EPA administrator for rolling back regulations intended to cut carbon emissions.
In the debate on carbon regulations, arguments over economics and the fate of the world usually take the forefront. Emissions regulations overly burden businesses and are less effective than market-driven technological advancement, Republicans generally argue. Democrats tend to stress the need for action to combat climate change and protect the Earth from irreparable harm from severe weather events and rising oceans.
During a line of questioning from Pingree, Pruitt took a different tact. He focused on the process through which the EPA enacts regulations and the extent of the EPA’s authority.
Early in the exchange, Pingree began reading letters from children in her district lamenting their futures if climate change continues unabated. One child said his family tradition of camping out and eating lobster on one of Maine’s islands would soon be impossible because of climate change.
“If the oceans keep warming and pushing lobsters north, there will most likely not be the same island culture that there is today,” Pinegree quoted. “Lobster fishermen will be replaced by tourists, and there will be no reason for me to return to the island with my children.”
