The guy Donald Trump picked to head the Environmental Protection Agency, like most of Trump’s picks, is leading an agency he’s determined to undermine and destroy; Scott Pruitt is a far right climate change denier in the pocket of the fossil fuel industries. And today he gave an interview to CNN in which he used the well-worn “bad timing” excuse to try to shut down discussion of climate change, as we see one of the most powerful super-storms ever recorded poised to lay waste to the east coast of the US.

Washington (CNN) – Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt told CNN in an interview about Hurricane Irma on Thursday that the time to talk about climate change isn’t now.

“Here’s the issue,” Pruitt told CNN in a phone interview. “To have any kind of focus on the cause and effect of the storm; versus helping people, or actually facing the effect of the storm, is misplaced.”

He continued: “What we need to focus on is access to clean water, addressing these areas of superfund activities that may cause an attack on water, these issues of access to fuel. … Those are things so important to citizens of Florida right now, and to discuss the cause and effect of these storms, there’s the… place (and time) to do that, it’s not now.”

[…]

“Congress should address that at some point. And Congress hasn’t,” he said. “All I’m saying to you is, to use time and effort to address it at this point is very, very insensitive to the people in Florida.”

It’s pretty safe to say there’s never going to be a time when Trump’s anti-science puppets give their permission to discuss the ever-worsening impact of climate change.