You're right - but Pruitt does say these kind of things to appease his bosses. Only his bosses aren't the fossil fuel industry, they're the voters.

You see, the dirty secret about climate change is that it isn't driven by the government, or by oil companies, or by the media. They're just the middle-men, the enablers. Climate change is driven by the people. Lots of people. People who don't want to give up the comforts that burning oil has brought them - don't want to give up their domestic flights, don't want to stop driving their trucks or eating food that's shipped halfway across the world.

So when a politician stands up and says "Climate change isn't happening", they're not doing it for Shell, or for Fox news, or for the Saudis. It's for all the people who need someone to tell them that it's okay to keep all of their stuff, that they can keep doing whatever they want. And those people have no choice but to vote for the person telling them that - because how else could they keep believing?

It's time to stop blaming companies and governments for global warming. Like you say, the oil companies accept it - big business, government, all receive the best scientific advice in the world, and on an institutional level they can all see the writing on the wall. There's only only thing now stood between America and meaningful action on climate change: the 160 million American people who refuse to believe in it.