Scott Pruitt, President Donald Trump's pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, made a brief appearance in Dallas on Friday as part of the city's Earth Day festivities at Fair Park — a visit that wasn't particularly appreciated by some in the environmental community.

Protesters disrupted both Pruitt's "fireside chat-style" conversation with Texas Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton as well as an impromptu reception held when the discussion was delayed and moved to another room at Fair Park's Hall of State.

1 / 2Protesters Cherelle Blazer (left) and Danna Miller Pyke hold a banner inside the Hall of State before Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt speaks at the Celebration of Earth Day at Fair Park. (Staff Photographer / Jae S. Lee) 2 / 2Valerie Walraven (right) takes a group photo of some of those protesting Pruitt's visit.(Staff Photographer / Jae S. Lee)

The EPA director has been roundly decried for positions and measures environmentalists fear will reverse gains they feel have been made under previous presidential administrations. That includes Pruitt's expressed opinion, contradicting widely accepted science, that carbon dioxide is not a primary factor in global warming.

"You're gutting the EPA!" shouted an older man from the crowd, one of three people to interrupt the discussion and be escorted from the room. "How much have you been paid to do this? You're a monster!"

After the third protester was removed, Sitton joked with Pruitt, former attorney general of Oklahoma: "I told you that OU-Texas rivalry was quite intense."

At the reception, protesters Cherelle Blazer, the Sierra Club's Dallas organizer, and Danna Miller Pyke held a banner and shouted as attendees lined up for beer and tortilla chips.

"Get Scott Pruitt out of the EPA!" Pyke yelled. "We don't want you here!"

Certainty and a long-term view are key to environmental success, EPA chief Scott Pruitt (left) told Texas Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton. A smattering of protesters weren't buying it. (Staff Photographer / Jae S. Lee)

In his discussion with Sitton, Pruitt said his philosophy is to take "the long view," giving industry time to innovate methods to meet current environmental standards — rather than continually raising or changing them, which he accused previous administrations of doing.

"Certainty and a long-term view are key," he said. "Those who are regulated want to know what's expected of them."

Pruitt also said that efforts to reach ozone-level standards are hampered by a lack of adequate measuring equipment in many counties nationwide and that he was committed to Superfund site cleanup "so people can start enjoying their communities again."

"We're trying to provide outcomes that are tangible to the American people," he said. "We're trying to go out and do things rather than just say things."

Pruitt drew applause from the crowd when he said he would put an end to "regulation by litigation," in which the department settles suits by consent decree and bypasses rule-making procedures without input from the public.

"Our job is to make sure that as people respond to either the withdrawal or proposal of a rule that we evaluate how it's going to impact both health and other situations, and then respond accordingly, on the record," he said.

Before the event, a small gathering of protesters had displayed a trio of banners outside the Hall of State reading "Scott Pruitt: Public Health Enemy #1" as Earth Day attendees trickled by.

"He's dismantling the EPA and the standards they've put in place," said Valerie Walraven of Indivisible: Oak Cliff. "It doesn't make any sense. The reason things have improved is because of those regulations."