Don enviro-bent
Touts eco record & hit as ‘Pollution Prez’
President Trump mused Monday about taking a “very tough” stance on environmental issues, drawing biting rebuke from critics who say his administration is exacerbating — not combating — climate change.
In a fact-challenged speech from the East Room of the White House, Trump claimed his “environmental leadership” is nearly unmatched on the global stage.
“My administration has made it a top priority to ensure that America is among the very cleanest air and cleanest water on the planet,” Trump said. “From the very beginning, I have given (cabinet members) clear direction to focus on addressing environmental challenges so we can provide the highest quality of life to all Americans.”
The president added, “We are doing a very tough job and not everybody knows that, and that’s one of the reasons we’re here today to speak to you.”
Trump’s upbeat speech — which did not coincide with any particular announcement and appeared mostly aimed at winning over 2020 voters concerned about climate change — didn’t hold up well against the facts.
Despite claims of clean air and water, federal data shows there were more polluted air days in both years Trump has been in office than each of the preceding four years.
Meanwhile, Trump has made it a key point of his presidency to roll back various environmental regulations, including the Clean Power Plan, which was designed to reshape the country’s power system and make it more reliant on natural, nocarbon sources. Trump has replaced the Obama-era plan with a regulation-slashing blueprint that allows states to decide themselves how to produce energy.
The president has also drawn international ire for pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement, calling climate change a “hoax” perpetuated by China and appointing former coal and oil lobbyists to top positions in the Environmental Protection Agency.
“The president can say what he wants, but his environmental record is clear — and awful,” former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement. “Trump is the Pollution President: He has protected toxic chemicals and pollutants that poison our air and water instead of the health of the American people … and he has driven up the greenhouse gases that are causing climate change.”
Bloomberg, a major financial backer of climate change-combating initiatives, added, “He can try to claim credit, but the American people won’t be fooled.”
Underscoring the political nature of the event, Trump at one point in his speech invited on stage Bruce Hrobak, the owner of a bait and tackle shop in Port St. Lucie, Fla.
Hrobak praised the president for nearly 10 minutes then bellowed, “Trump 2020!” into the mic before stepping off state.
Polls have increasingly suggested voters are identifying climate change and the environment as key political priorities ahead of 2020.
In his speech, the president reiterated his belief that economic prosperity for the fossil fuel industry is at least as important as environmental well being.
“The previous administration waged a relentless war on American energy. We can’t do that,” he said. “These radical plans would not make the world cleaner. They would just put Americans out of work, and put them out of work rapidly.”
Trump blasted by name the so-called Green New Deal, a sweeping legislative framework on how to combat climate change embraced by progressives in Congress.
“It will crush the dreams of the poorest Americans and disproportionately harm minority communities,” Trump said without citing any data. “I will not stand for it. We will defend the environment, but we will also defend American sovereignty, American prosperity, and we will defend American jobs.”