Manchin criticized Obama's environmental regulations as a "war on coal" and demanded what he called a proper balance between the needs of the environment and the coal business. The "Los Angeles Times" wrote that while professing environmental concerns, he has consistently stood up for coal, saying "no one is going to stop using fossil for a long time." Manchin "does not deny the existence of man-made climate change", the "Times" wrote, but "is reluctant to curtail it." In February 2017, he was one of two Democratic senators to vote to confirm Scott Pruitt as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. In June 2017, Manchin supported Trump's withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, saying he supported "a cleaner energy future" but that the Paris deal failed to strike "a balance between our environment and the economy."