As Trump Touts Environmental Gains, Opponents Unveil

(WASHINGTON, DC) President Donald Trump celebrated the environmental progress made under his administration at an event in the East Room of the White House Monday. The event comes as the United States is cleaner than last year and has reduced pollution by 74 percent over 50 years. Mary Neumayr, chairwoman of the Council on Environmental Quality, explained that Trump views a healthy economy as a prerequisite for a clean climate. The resources and advantages derived from a powerful economy can be used to improve the environment, she said. Though the U.S. pulled out of a global climate agreement, the Paris Accord, Trump said we’re one of the few industrialized nations to meet the environmental goals set out in the Paris accord even after having quit it. He noted that every signatory of the accord lags behind the United States in reducing carbon emissions. He also lauded the progress made by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Superfund program to clean up hazardous waste sites. In 2018, EPA removed 22 sites from the list of national priorities, the most since 2005. The event was held one day before Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders (VT-D) and outspoken freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-D) unveiled a resolution to declare the climate crisis an official emergency. The resolution, even if passed and signed by the president, could not force any action on climate change.