During a speech Monday, which the White House billed as "remarks on America's environmental leadership," President Donald Trump touted his administration's environmental protection initiatives. What he did not mention was climate change or global warming.
We have a "profound obligation to protect America's extraordinary blessings for the next generation and many generations, frankly, to come," Trump said.
During his speech, Trump defended his 2017 decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement, which is a voluntary international pact aimed at limiting global warming.
"The previous administration waged a relentless war on American energy," Trump said. "They sought to punish our workers, our producers, and manufacturers with ineffective global agreements."
Trump also said that the speech was given specifically to inform the American people of his environmental efforts. He lauded his signing of the Save Our Seas Act of 2018, a bipartisan legislation aimed at limiting ocean debris, and other land management policies to curb wildfires. "We're doing a very tough job and not everybody knows it and that is one of the reasons we are here today to speak to you," he said.
The remarks follow two years of Trump — who has repeatedly called climate change a hoax — and his cabinet secretaries largely dismantling government regulations aimed at preserving the natural environment and protecting access to clean air and water.
The White House and Congressional Republicans have rolled back, or are attempting to eliminate, over 100 regulations, according to the Climate Deregulation Tracker at Columbia University.
Examples include the Environmental Protection Agency's withdrawing its requirement that oil and gas companies report methane emissions and the Department of Interior's decision to reverse off-shore oil drilling safety standards that were put in place after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blast in the Gulf of Mexico, which caused the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
Just last month, the Trump administration also completed its reversal the Clean Power Plan, which curbed greenhouse emissions and was a signature environmental policy put in place under President Obama. The administration replaced the regulatory regime with a much weaker and more industry-friendly alternative titled the Affordable Clean Energy Rule.
Trump, nonetheless, claimed Monday that "from day one, my administration has made it a top priority to ensure that America has among the very cleanest air and cleanest water on the planet."
The president was joined at the podium by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt — both former lobbyist for the oil and energy sector — as well as Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Council on Environmental Quality chief Mary Neumayr.
"America is and will remain the gold standard for environmental protection," Wheeler said.
The U.S. was in fact rated number 27 on the 2018 Environmental Performance Index, which scores countries worldwide on their environmental protection policies.
Before and after the scheduled address, Trump was slammed by critics for praising and defending his environmental record.
"The only people cheering President Trump's record on the environment are oil, gas, and coal barons and their lobbyists," Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Twitter.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee — a 2020 presidential candidates and leading voice in the fight against climate change — criticized the agency heads, noting that "the EPA is run by a coal lobbyist, Interior is run by an oil lobbyist and Energy is run by someone who wanted to abolish the department."
Fellow 2020 presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called Trump's record "pathetic and an embarrassment to the world" and urged the president to "start listening to scientists and not his friends in the fossil fuel, chemical, and big agribusiness industries."
Earthjustice, a nonprofit focused on litigating environmental issues that has sued the Trump administration over 120 times, refuted Trump's speech and claimed that he has "worst environmental record of any president since our environmental laws were first created."
The sentiment was echoed by the Michael Brune, the executive director of the Sierra Club, who said in a statement that Trump's speech "was full of more hot air than his dangerous policies and rollbacks are pumping into our atmosphere."
"Attempting to greenhouse gaslight the American people with a single speech — one that fails to even acknowledge the climate crisis — won't help the families and communities suffering from the toxic pollution caused by Trump's dangerous agenda," Brune added.
The environmental protection organization, Friends of the Earth, also condemned the "lies Trump is spewing."
A Washington Post-ABC News poll released on Sunday found that just 29 percent of Americans approve of Trump's handling of the climate crisis.
