I could neither read or type this with a straight face.
Industrial emissions are down in the United States according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and administrator Andrew Wheeler is crediting Trump for it even though Trump has done everything he can to let the biggest polluters keep polluting.
That would be funny on its own, but Wheeler's contradictory words are a sight to behold.
Data released Wednesday from industrial facilities that showed total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions fell 2.7 percent between 2016 and 2017. EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler gave credit to President Donald Trump’s “regulatory reform agenda.”
“While many around the world are talking about reducing greenhouse gases, the U.S. continues to deliver, and today’s report is further evidence of our action-oriented approach,” Wheeler said in a news release.
The Trump regime's "action-oriented approach" has been to take no action.
Wheeler seems to be implying that industry is policing and regulating itself in the absence of real regulation, but that's not what's happening.
The truth is some industries moved to adopt Obama-era regulations before those regulations actually became law. For example, some of the biggest natural gas companies adopted the Obama-era standards for trapping excess methane and gas emissions before those standards hit the books. Trump has taken steps to eliminate that and other regulations, but emissions continued to fall in 2017 after Trump took office because industry adapted to the regulations before they were rolled back.
The bulk of Trump's "regulatory reform agenda," or whateverthefuck you want to call it, was not even finalized and released until this year (2018) and some of it is still tied up in court. The idea that Trump's fingerprints are on a reduction in emissions in 2017 doesn't pass the laugh test.
I'll be sure to remember this if emissions increase over the next two years.