WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump declared himself a champion of the environment Monday, saying he was balancing business-friendly oversight with public health and conservation protections.
"We have only one America. We have only one planet," Trump said in a White House address. "That is why every day of my presidency, we will fight for a cleaner environment and a better quality of life for every one of our great citizens. Above all, we will remain loyal to the American people and be faithful stewards of God's glorious creation."
Cabinet members stood and applauded the president's remarks and then went to the East Room podium, one by one, to attest to his dedication to conservation.
The president also invited to the stage a Florida bait-and-tackle shop owner, Bruce Hrobak, who praised what he said were the administration's efforts against water-fouling algae before pumping his fist in the air and declaring, "Trump 2020."
But former government regulators and environmental advocates said Trump's promotion of his administration's environmental record strained credulity, arguing that Trump has launched some of the most sweeping rollbacks in air, water and other protections in decades. The president campaigned to all but eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency, and he has promoted the U.S. coal industry and expanded a boom in U.S. gas and oil.
"Trump's environmental record is such a toxic disaster it should be declared a Superfund site," said Carol Browner, who led the EPA during President Bill Clinton's administration.
The White House is recognizing that "the majority of folks in the country are now beginning to pay attention to climate issues and environmental issues," said Mustafa Santiago Ali, a former longtime official in the EPA's office of environmental justice.
Administration officials are "trying to reframe the conversation to make people think they've done something to better protect them. And unfortunately they haven't done a single thing," Ali said. He pointed to EPA estimates that proposed rollbacks for fossil fuel emissions will cause thousands of additional deaths annually from air pollution.
In the view of a former senior EPA transportation engineer, Jeff Alson, the administration's claims of environmental leadership are "truly Orwellian." Alson has accused the administration of fudging data to support easing vehicle mileage standards.
Trump said he was focused on "practical solutions" but that many Democrats in Congress instead supported the Green New Deal, a plan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions that the president said would cost $100 trillion.
"It'll crush the dreams of the poorest Americans and disproportionately harm minority communities," Trump said, providing no details. "I will not stand for it."
As a candidate, Trump campaigned on a pledge to eradicate all but a "little bit" of the EPA. As president, he routinely has proposed cutting the agency's budget by almost one-third. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have blocked the proposed cuts.
The administration has initiated dozens of regulatory changes, at times proposing cutting rules even more than regulated industries requested, as in the case of mileage standards.
The biggest changes include easing federal Clean Water Act protections for millions of miles of waterways and wetlands, a cut welcomed by developers, many farmers and by U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., who said the protections "put Washington in control of ponds, puddles and prairie potholes." Other changes would ease regulation and support the coal industry and oil and gas companies.
Critics say other changes favor industry over science in environmental and public health protections.
Trump has also pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord and dismissed federal scientists' warnings on climate change.
But in comments before the speech, Mary Neumayr, chairman of the administration's Council on Environmental Quality, and Andrew Wheeler, head of the EPA, pointed to overall U.S. progress cleaning up the air and water since the 1970s, and said progress has continued under Trump.
Wheeler said conventional-criteria air pollution has dropped 73% from 1970 to 2017, and that the percentage of U.S. water systems that meet drinking water standards has risen from about 60% in 1970 to more than 90% today.
A Section on 07/09/2019