EPA Release Was Meant to Laud Trump. Things Went Awry

'Recklessly bury his head in the sand' not supposed to be there
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 31, 2017 8:30 AM CDT
EPA Release Was Meant to Laud Trump. Things Went Awry
A portion of President Donald Trump's first proposed budget, focusing on the Environmental Protection Agency and released by the Office of Management and Budget, is photographed in Washington on March 15, 2017.   (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)

It's a classic example of he said/she said, or maybe an instance of he said what she never said. The confusion comes courtesy of an EPA press release that was meant to quote a GOP senator who had glowing things to say about President Trump's recent climate-change rollbacks. And that senator, West Virginia's Shelley Moore Capito, was quoted in the release, but the words weren't hers, Politico reports. In the release, which the Washington Post notes was designed to include quotes from those who supported Trump's initiative, Capito chose to rip into Trump instead, noting he chose to "recklessly bury his head in the sand" and that his climate order put America's credibility on the line. He and EPA head Scott Pruitt, Capito went on, "have chosen to ... disregard clear science and undo the significant progress our country has made."

Except Capito didn't make those remarks: Delaware Sen. Tom Carper, the Democratic lead on the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, did, and his words were mistakenly attributed to Capito in what an EPA spokesman tells Politico was "an internal draft [that] was mistakenly sent." "We apologize for the error," the spokesman notes, adding that they're working on their internal "process" to avoid such a mistake again. Carper didn't seem to mind his statements being appropriated, with his spokeswoman telling the Hill: "Sen. Carper is happy to lend his words to a good cause." Meanwhile, a press release out of Capito's office more accurately reflects her feelings on the matter: She stands by the president for his efforts to "preserve America's coal industry" and "expand our manufacturing renaissance." (More EPA stories.)

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