Rep. Paul Tonko said that President Trump committed “borderline criminal negligence” in dismissing climate change science during his visit to Europe this week.
“When the leader of the nation and free world is willing to broadcast total rejection of climate science and unawareness of what’s going on around us, we are tarnishing the image of a nation,” Tonko, D-N.Y., told the Washington Examiner. “It’s borderline criminal negligence.”
Tonko is the usually mild-mannered chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee that handles environment and climate change.
He was fired up over Trump’s comments to Piers Morgan on “Good Morning Britain” that aired Wednesday, in which the president conflated weather with climate change. The interview took place after Trump met with Prince Charles, who warned about the perils of global warming.
“I believe that there’s a change in weather, and I think it changes both ways,” Trump said. “Don’t forget it used to be called global warming. That wasn’t working. Then it was called climate change. Now it’s actually called extreme weather, because, with extreme weather, you can’t miss.”
Trump also confused reductions in conventional pollution with combating climate change, saying “the United States has among the cleanest climates there are based on all statistics,” boasting about America’s clean air and water.
Tonko said Trump’s comments are factually wrong.
“When I saw those quotes I was just shaking my head in disbelief,” Tonko said. “The way it is phrased is total unawareness. It’s really frightening. It’s tragic when you most need leadership all you get is denial. The response tells me the president has no idea what he’s talking about.”
He also said that Trump is damaging the U.S.’ standing.
“It’s an image you are impacting here too,” Tonko said. “The U.S. has always been leaders. If it hasn’t been the race on equality, it’s the race on justice, or on economic progress. We have always run that race to the finish line. To have something like this when the president is going the opposite direction is just incredible.”
Tonko is relatively moderate on climate issues. He has not endorsed the progressive Green New Deal, and he released his own “doable” framework to address climate change that contains short-term goals that Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans also support.
But Tonko, a trained mechanical and industrial engineer, says he’s fed up with Trump’s comments about science.
Tonko this week called for the House to initiate impeachment proceedings against Trump “to more fully assess the Constitutional implications of seemingly criminal actions by the president and his campaign,” vowing such an effort “will not distract us” from his interest in “confronting the growing climate crisis.”
The New York Democrat worries that Trump’s challenge of climate science is more than just rhetoric. Trump supports efforts by political appointees at the National Security Council to create a panel to question climate change science and the consensus among the Defense Department and intelligence community within the U.S. government that climate change threatens national security.
The Trump administration also plans to reexamine how government scientists study the consequences of climate change by potentially limiting consideration of worst-case projections.
“What you are doing is you are cooking the books literally and you will be part of disastrous outcomes,” Tonko said. “It’s so disingenuous and non-academic. It’s so un-American.”
