EPA chief jabs California’s environment push

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt ripped California Gov. Jerry Brown’s (D) “political agenda” on the environment, following the state’s push for greener policies.

“Is it federalism to impose your policy on other states? It seems to me that Brown is being the aggressor here,” Pruitt told The New York Times. “But we expect the law will show this. … That’s not federalism — that’s a political agenda hiding behind federalism.”

Brown said in Tuesday’s interview that he envisions California as a model to other states on fighting climate change.

{mosads}“I want to do everything we can to keep America on track, keep the world on track, and lead in all the ways that California has,” he said. “We’re looking to do everything we can to advance our program, regardless of what happens in Washington.”

Brown added that the Trump administration’s executive order to dismantle the Clean Power Plan was a “colossal mistake and defies science.”

“Erasing climate change may take place in Donald Trump’s mind, but nowhere else,” he said.

Californian lawmakers, including Brown, have been highly critical of President Trump’s push to roll back Obama-era regulations on the environment.

Trump in March signed an executive order to start unraveling former President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan. The plan would have closed hundreds of coal-fired power plants, frozen construction on new plants and replaced them with solar and wind farms.

Obama pledged that the U.S. would cut its emissions by about 26 percent from 2005 levels by 2025, with implementing the plan a part of that effort.