Sent: Monday, July 8, 2019 14:36
To: Erin Auel
Subject: Wheeler points to decades of environmental progress in preview of Trump speech
07/08/2019 02:04 PM EDT
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said today criticism of President Donald Trump's achievements ignores the progress made since the 1970s, when EPA was created and landmark air and water laws were passed.
"The Sierra Club is ignoring all the environmental progress that this country has made," Wheeler said on a conference call with reporters ahead of Trump's speech on the environment this afternoon.
Wheeler was responding to a question about a statement from Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune accusing the president of "greenhouse gaslighting the public to try and cover-up the fact that he is the worst president in history for the environment."
EPA will announce next week that so-called criteria pollutants such as particulate matter and smog-forming ozone are down 74 percent since 1970, Wheeler said. Carbon dioxide emissions are down 15 percent since 2005, and 92 percent of drinking water systems now meet EPA standards, up from 60 percent in the 1970s, Wheeler added.
He also touted methane reductions from the natural gas industry, which has doubled production since 2000 but has reduced methane pollution by 16 percent over that period.
"This country's making incredible progress on the environment and we've continued to make incredible progress under President Trump's leadership," Wheeler said.
He also rejected the idea that the Trump administration is taking credit for long-term environmental gains made under presidents dating back to Richard Nixon.
"We're not taking credit for what happened before but we're acknowledging, and I think the American public needs to understand, if they listen to the news every night they would think the air's gotten worse over the last 49 years, when in fact the air has gotten better," he said.