Carper Statement on President Trump’s Failed Hail Mary Speech on Environmental Protections

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, released the following statement in reaction to President Trump’s so-called “America’s Environmental Leadership” speech in which the president and several cabinet members, including EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, touted the Trump Administration’s record on environmental stewardship. The Trump Administration has pursued more than 80 rollbacks of environmental policies.

“Earlier today, just hours after historic rainfall drenched Washington, D.C., President Trump waxed poetic about protecting our country’s ‘natural splendors’ while floodwaters seeped into the White House basement. This is the same president who believes global warming is a hoax created by the Chinese. And his speech today was a desperate and failed attempt to change public opinion about this administration’s disastrous environmental record.

“I have had the privilege of serving as the seniormost Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee since Donald Trump became president, and I have seen his administration do nearly everything in its power to eliminate or weaken protections for our environment and public health. That is the president who stood before America today.

“The president who touted our country’s clean air today is the same president who has repealed the Clean Power Plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions, rolled back mercury pollution rules and diminished the ability of states to address harmful emissions to air and water. The president who praised America’s so-called leadership on the environment is the one who actually abdicated American leadership by withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accords, a retreat from the world’s greatest environmental challenge.

“I have long said that it is a false choice to choose between growing our economy and strengthening environmental protections. We once had a president who understood that, but, sadly, we do not have such kind of president today.”