EPA administrator Scott Pruitt discussed a variety of issues on Fox & Friends this morning, from employees using encrypted text messaging, his agency’s pro-growth agenda, and frivolous lawsuits. According to Judicial Watch, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) staffers were using the Signal app to communicate using encrypted text messages.

The conservative-leaning Judicial Watch is suing to have the text messages released. The suit alleges that rogue EPA staffers are using the technology to undercut the Trump administration and the EPA's new administrator while circumventing federal archiving laws.

Pruitt called the encrypted texting troubling and he was addressing the problem. The EPA employs about 15,000 career staffers.

Pruitt said to expect more changes coming out of the EPA. He stressed you can have “jobs and growth” and a clean Environment, adding: “It was the Obama administration that said you had to choose the environment at the expense of jobs.” He also recognized that Washington, including the EPA, has become too bloated and his agency needed to spend more time in the field.

Wild kingdom

Pruitt said these other challenges, like environmental lawsuits, were frivolous and expected.

One suit in the litigation pipeline targets the border wall, which environmentalists claim will hurt the jaguar cat. Judicial Watch wrote on its website that the Obama administration relaxed the Endangered Species Act (ESA) requirements, making it easier to designate habitats critical to an animal’s survival.

One of the world’s leading cat experts, Dr.

Alan Rabinowitz, said less than one percent of the jaguar’s global habitat was in the Southwestern U.S. and it wasn’t critical for the cat’s survival. He also noted the species hasn’t lived in the contested region as a population for at least 50 years. Ninety-nine percent of the cat’s population resides in Mexico and they don’t roam into the U.S.

Paris accord a 'bad deal'

Pruitt reiterated on Fox & Friends we need to leave the Paris climate accord, once again calling it a “bad deal” for Americans. China and India, he said, have no obligations to reduce CO2 emissions until 2030 even as the United States continues to lower its own emissions at the expense of its economy. The accord, Pruitt said, contracts our economy while serving European needs through an agreement that’s not legally enforceable.

He said he was investigating the EPA division in Las Vegas that bilked taxpayers out of $15,000 to pay for gym memberships.

Pruitt will be visiting coal mines in Pennsylvania today to further explain President Trump’s executive orders to miners and to let them know the war on coal was over. He will also stress clean coal, which he says is not a myth, as well as shale oil and gas recovery.
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