Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Scott Pruitt broke with mainstream views on climate change while appearing on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Thursday, arguing that carbon dioxide was not a "primary contributor" to the planet's warming.
Host Joe Kernen asked Pruitt whether he believed that evidence showed carbon dioxide was the "primary control knob" altering climate change.
"I would not agree that it's a primary contributor to the global warming that we see," Pruitt said.
Several government agencies, including the EPA, have publicly identified carbon dioxide as either a primary or significant driver behind climate change, according to CNBC.
The EPA website says, "Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas that is contributing to recent climate change."
NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration both said in January that the earth's surface temperature increased, "driven largely by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere."