WASHINGTON If you listen to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt , the biggest environmental problem facing the United States isnt climate change (he doesnt think thats real , anyway), or lead-tainted drinking water or brain-damaging pesticides . Its that Barack Obama didnt clean up the more than 1,300 most contaminated and hazardous sites across the country.

A Fox News headline earlier this month declared that Pruitt was here to clean up the Obama administrations toxic mess. The former Oklahoma attorney general would have the American people believe that what the Superfund program really needs isnt funding, its the right attitude.

Its not a matter of money, Pruitt told Fox News . Its a matter of leadership and attitude and management.

Pruitt has been fixated on the EPAs Superfund, which is responsible for cleaning up highly contaminated sites , since taking over as agency chief in February. Hes called it absolutely essential and has repeatedly stressed that its part of EPAs core mission . During an April visit to a lead- and arsenic-laden Superfund site in East Chicago, Indiana, Pruitt said he went there because its important that we restore confidence to people in this community that were going to get it right going forward. And he has blamed poor leadership and poor focus on the part of the Obama administration for there being more Superfund sites today than when Obama took office.