Trump Will Not Eliminate GHG Efforts, EPA’s McCarthy Says as Term Nears End
This story appears in the Nov. 28 print edition of Transport Topics.
In one of her last public speeches as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Gina McCarthy said grass-roots demand for clean air, energy and water will continue to allow the agency to make progress protecting the environment, even in the face of anticipated challenges when Donald Trump becomes president.
Speaking at the National Press Club on Nov. 21, McCarthy, the agency’s chief since July 2013, said she realizes there is anxiety by some over the new administration, but she remains steadfast in her belief that EPA’s mission will not be blocked by partisan politics.
Although Trump has yet to name McCarthy’s successor, he has called global warming “a hoax.” President Obama and McCarthy have devoted much energy to decreasing the output of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, saying such emissions lead to planetary warming and climate change.
McCarthy’s policies have been a target of some Republicans, who have accused her of waging a war against coal.
“The train to a global clean en- ergy future has already left the station,” McCarthy said. “So we have a choice. We can choose to get on board and actually provide leadership, or we can choose to be left behind to stand stubbornly still.”
McCarthy said Americans may be tired of arguments, but they still care about results.
“They may be fed up with what [they] hear from Washington, but that does not mean they do not care about what we do and do not do,” she said. “They care about clean air and water, fishable rivers and streams and safe places to live, work and play.”
Although she did not specifically mention the regulation of greenhouse-gas emissions from heavy-duty trucks, McCarthy said EPA will “continue to be essential to cutting carbon pollution in the United States and making good on our global leadership.”
She said she has not yet been contacted by the Trump transition team but is looking forward to a “smooth transition so that folks can see the work of the agency and how well we have done our job.”
She noted that the Obama administration’s greenhouse-gas standards for cars and trucks will reduce CO2 output and save drivers money at the pump. McCarthy credited Obama for advancing environmental protections to a “spectacularly different place today than we were when President Obama took office.”
“Before, developing countries would point a finger at us,” McCarthy said. “Now they are wondering if the U.S. will turn its back on science and be left behind.
“Our task is timeless. It is nonpartisan. It is essential to every single life,” said McCarthy, a former cabinet member of the Connecticut state government before joining EPA in 2009.
“The world continues to be in motion, and it will continue changing regardless of the few who choose not to acknowledge it,” she said.
