Trump raises eyebrows in promoting his environment record

President Donald Trump is promoting what he is calling his administration's "environmental leadership" despite its sweeping rollbacks of landmark environmental and public health protections. Critics are calling it a credulity-straining gesture aimed at winning over voters worried about climate change and pollution.

Trump's speech at the White House on Monday afternoon will focus on the administration's "practical approach to addressing environmental challenges while also supporting a strong economy," Mary Neumayr, who heads the president's Council on Environmental Quality, told reporters in previewing his remarks.

Polls show increasing numbers of voters are identifying the environment and climate change as priorities, although the issues are a much bigger concern for Democrats rather than for Trump's Republican base.

Trump has a tough case to make as an environmental steward given his record, according to former environmental advocates and former federal regulators.

Mustafa Santiago Ali, a former official in the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Environmental Justice, said the White House is recognizing that "the majority of folks in the country are now beginning to pay attention to climate issues and environmental issues."
In the view of a former senior EPA transportation engineer, Jeff Alson, the administration's claims of environment leadership are "truly Orwellian."