President Donald Trump‘s joint address to Congress last night included comments on climate change and the climate crisis.
“The American dream is surging bigger and better than ever before,” Trump said to members of Congress Tuesday night. “The American dream is unstoppable and our country is on the verge of a comeback the likes of which the world has never witnessed and perhaps will never witness again.”
However, Trump’s dream for America and Americans involves setting efforts for climate change back 50 years and undoing decades of activism to slow global warming and climate change, which has been witnessed with the uptick in natural disasters in America in recent years, including hurricanes and wildfires.
While Trump boasted of his accomplishments in the first six weeks of his second term as president, leaders of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC) prepared a response to Trump’s address which painted a dishonest picture of the state of American affairs.
The SEEC is a coalition of 100 members of the U.S. House of Representatives founded in January 2009 to be a focused, active and effective coalition for advancing policies that address climate change, promote clean energy innovation and domestic manufacturing, develop renewable energy resources, create family-sustaining clean jobs, protect our nation’s air, water, and natural environment, and promote environmental justice. SEEC leaders include Co-Chairs Reps. Doris Matsui, Mike Quigley, and Paul Tonko and Vice Chairs Reps. Don Beyer of Virginia, Suzanne Bonamici, Sean Casten, Mike Levin and Chellie Pingree.
“Donald Trump stood before Congress and delivered lie after lie about the current state of America. President Trump — through a litany of illegal actions — has sought to sow chaos in our communities by raising the costs of everyday life, ceding the American clean energy economy to our foreign competitors, and destroying the healthy and prosperous future we’ve promised to our children,” the SEEC said in a statement late Tuesday night.
According to the SEEC, Trump has lied about making America affordable again for Americans, especially when it comes to energy costs.
“Across the nation, families are feeling the pressure of rising electricity costs, but President Trump’s policy of doubling down on dirty energy means that Big Oil gets to pad their bottom line while American families foot the bill. On top of this, Trump is turning a blind eye to the climate change-fueled natural disasters that are destroying homes, driving higher prices of groceries and energy, and contributing to rising medical bills,” the SEEC said.
Trump promised to rescue the American economy and that has already been another lie.
“Under President Trump, businesses have already cancelled or stalled at least $57 billion in private investments for the clean energy economy that were supposed to create tens of thousands of jobs across red, blue and purple states and lower costs for consumers. The Trump Administration is also reversing science-backed, cost-saving standards while hamstringing private companies who are trying to deploy made-in-America sources of new affordable energy. Clean energy is the fastest growing energy source, but Trump is ceding our leadership in the global clean energy race to foreign countries,” the SEEC said.
The burden of empty promises from the Trump Administration will eventually fall on American children and future generations.
“While Elon Musk and his DOGE minions take a hacksaw to our public institutions, it is the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the nature we enjoy, and the natural resources promised to future generations that are on the chopping block,” the SEEC said.
Trump stated in his speech Tuesday night that he repealed the Green New Deal and withdrew from the Paris Agreement, the former an American plan to combat climate change and the latter an international plan to achieve similar goals. Trump also said he removed former President Joe Biden‘s environmental restrictions which, according to Trump, made the nation unsafe and unaffordable. He withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization and the UN Human Rights Council. He also removed an electric vehicle mandate to save American auto companies from “economic destruction.” All actions were done to save Americans money.
“Donald Trump has already delivered an America that is less affordable, less safe and less healthy. Quite the losing record for such a short time in office,” the SEEC said.
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Rebecca Barnabi
