President Trump Promotes Administration’s Environmental Accomplishments   

On July 8th President Trump gave a speech on his administration’s environmental accomplishments. I was lucky to be one of a couple hundred people invited to attend the speech in the White House’s East Room.

It was a good, but not entirely coherent speech. The president rightly said that:

A strong economy is vital to maintaining a healthy environment. When we innovate, produce, and grow, we’re able to unleash technologies and processes that make the environment better… Punishing Americans is never the right way to produce a better environment or a better economy.  We’ve rejected this failed approach, and we’re seeing incredible results. 

The president also tied his deregulatory energy agenda to environmental well-being. One of the biggest applause lines was when he went on to say, “[I]n my first year in office, I withdrew the United States from the unfair, ineffective, and very, very expensive Paris Climate Accord.” But on a jarring note, he said that, “Since 2000, our nation’s energy-related carbon emissions have declined more than any other country on Earth.”

The speech provided a large target for environmental pressure groups, mainstream media outlets, and Democratic elected officials to trash the Trump administration’s energy, climate, and environmental agenda.  Here are links to examples from the Guardian, The New York Times, and Washington Post.