On Saturday the newly confirmed head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [official website] Scott Pruitt [EPA bio] announced that they would be rolling back some Obama era regulations as soon as next week. When speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference [official website] (CPAC) on Saturday, Pruitt took a tone that the previous administration’s policies had a negative effect on economic growth and led many people to want the agency eliminated completely. Pruitt mentioned three rules specifically targeted by the new administration, the Waters of the U.S. [text, pdf] rule which affords protections to waterways, the Clean Power Plan [text, pdf] that cuts carbon emissions, and the U.S. Methane rule [text, pdf] which limits emissions on federal land. Below is the full speech:

Pruitt was a contentious pick to head the EPA and faced stern opposition from Democrats. The opposition came due to numerous lawsuits that Pruitt had filed against the EPA during his time as Attorney General for the State of Oklahoma. On February 17 Pruitt was confirmed by the Senate to lead the EPA. The day before, Pruitt was court ordered by a judge to release thousands of emails [JURIST report] between his office and big oil companies. This speech runs par with the current administrations plan to allow for less restrictions on energy companies, who feel that they have been hampered by the regulations implemented over the past 8 years.