Last week, President Donald Trump gave a speech declaring himself an environmental champion.
This is the same Donald Trump who:
- Made the United States the only country to withdraw from the critical Paris Climate Agreement to fight the climate crisis
- Directed his Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) staff to repeal the Clean Power Plan, which was reducing pollution from power plants and promoting clean energy
- Dropped the Clean Water Rule critical to conserving wetlands and headwater streams
- Is seeking to lower fuel efficiency standards which are key to reducing air pollution from cars and trucks, even against the advice of the auto industry
- Directed the severe reduction of designated national wildland monument preserves
- Vastly extended drilling for oil and gas on public lands
- Tried to open the entire Atlantic coast to offshore drilling.
And the list goes on and on.
“Trump’s environmental record is such a toxic disaster it should be declared a Superfund site,” said Carol Browner, former EPA Administrator and current board chair of the League of Conservation Voters (LCV). “Without the President’s acknowledgement of climate change as a threat to our economy, our environment and our health, his record on the environment can only be described as a total failure. Under this president we’ve seen more than 80 roll backs of public health and environmental protections on everything from the Clean Power Plan to pesticides. Enforcement of environmental laws is down more than 80% under his watch.”
Editorialists nationwide have taken note of this farce, including here in North Carolina:
Trump’s sudden decision to try to greenwash his anti-environmental record appears to originate from polling that shows rising public support for environmental protection and action on the climate crisis. Worried about the impacts, his political advisors pushed for a pro-environment speech. In this regard, the president really has few cards to play other than a raw denial of the facts of his tenure. If he is a champion of anything, it continues to be his lies. At least he has genuine experience in denial: denial of the reality of climate change.
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