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Pruitt says Americans are good stewards without agency overreach

President Trump’s Waters of the United States (WOTUS) repeal Tuesday represents hope and optimism for reducing the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory reach, according to its new administrator, Scott Pruitt.

“We have always been able the strike the balance between being a good steward of our natural resources, but also growing our jobs and our economy, and doing so in a responsible way,” said Pruitt, speaking Tuesday at the American Farm Bureau Federation Advocacy Conference in Washington, D.C.

The WOTUS rule was not what Congress had in mind in the first place, said Puitt.

“That rule reflected a power grab, it reflected an issue that said the EPA was going to take dry creek beds and puddles, literally, and exercise jurisdiction over those areas to require what? Permitting,” he said, “and that was all because a statute was taken and reimagined in a way that tried to give this agency more power than what Congress intended.”

Pruitt, who’s been on the job about a week, told the Farm Bureau audience that as EPA administrator, he will have the agency focus on rule of law and process.  “No agency,” said Pruitt, “has power that Congress has not given it.”

AUDIO: Scott Pruitt (13 min. MP3)