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Scott Pruitt says CO2 isn't a pollutant

Newly confirmed administrator Scott Pruitt expressed skepticism of the scientifically accepted fact that carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to climate change. This view conflicts with the stated position of the agency he leads, which started regulating emissions after a 2007 Supreme Court decision classified the gas as a pollutant. His comments hint at a marked shift in EPA policy, and a possible return of power to the states that had been consolidated at the federal level under the Obama administration.

"I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there's tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact, so no, I would not agree that it's a primary contributor to the global warming that we see," Mr. Pruitt told CNBC's "Squawk Box."

He admitted to continued need for data collection and analysis, adding, "but we don't know that yet.... We need to continue the debate and continue the review and the analysis."

How Pruitt will reconcile his views with those of his agency remains to be seen. The Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that greenhouse gases can be regulated under the Clean Air Act, a definition the EPA took advantage of two years later, classifying CO2 and five other gases as pollutants based on the idea that climate change can negatively impact health. This move let the agency set new vehicles emissions standards in 2010 and 2011.

Where Democrats see health and environmental protection, Pruitt, who has sued the EPA more than a dozen times as Oklahoma's attorney general, sees government overreach.

“The Clean Air Act stipulates that the states are supposed to be first among equals,” William Yeatman, a senior fellow at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute previously told The Christian Science Monitor. “Demonstrably, that’s the way it has not worked over the last eight years. What we’ve seen is this shift from cooperative federalism to coercive federalism.”

Many observers now expect Pruitt, who told CNBC Congress should revisit the Supreme Court’s carbon dioxide decision, to respond by devolving some of the federal power consolidated during the Obama administration to the states.