"When you think about the Clean Power Plan, it was not about regulating to make things regular. It was truly about regulating to pick winners and losers," EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said. | Riccardo Savi/Getty Images Trump administration to sign climate rule repeal proposal Tuesday

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said Monday he will formally sign a proposal to withdraw the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan on Tuesday in Washington.

"That rule really was about picking winners and losers. Regulatory power should not be used by any power to pick winners and losers," Pruitt said an event in Kentucky's coal country with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.


"The last administration just simply made it up," he continued, referring to the regulation that was designed to curb carbon emissions from power plants. "When you think about the Clean Power Plan, it was not about regulating to make things regular. It was truly about regulating to pick winners and losers."

Text obtained by POLITICO on Friday shows EPA will argue that the Clean Power Plan exceeded EPA's regulatory authority by requiring fuel shifting. Pruitt reiterated that point in his remarks today.

"They really interpreted that 'best system of emission reduction' as generating electricity in ways that they didn't want to use fossil fuels, so they used authority to do otherwise," he said.

