The political ‘fact checker’ Politifact – an arm of the leftist Tampa Bay Times – claims in a recent fact check (http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/jun/18/environmental-protection-agency/are-greenhouse-emissions-down-under-donald-trump-e/) that the Trump EPA is telling only a half truth when pointing out that greenhouse gas emissions have declined under the Trump administration. The objective facts, however, show EPA’s statement is entirely true. By falsely claiming EPA’s observation is half false, Politifact has disgraced itself (once again) and revealed its true nature as a purveyor of fake news.
Politifact decided to investigate and render a ruling on an EPA statement that, “The science is clear, under President Trump greenhouse gas emissions are down….” At the top of its article, Politifact asserted, “We found that to be a stretch.”
So what did the evidence show? Politifact first referenced “a comprehensive study issued every year by the energy company BP, called the Statistical Review of World Energy. It uses a different methodology [than EPA] but produced similar findings as the EPA data — a 0.5 percent decline in emissions for the United States in 2017 (Trump’s first year) over 2016 (Obama’s last).”
Politifact then observed, “A second set of data from the Energy Information Administration, a data-collecting unit of the federal Energy Department, showed a similar pattern. … Like the BP report, EIA found that that carbon emissions from energy declined between 2016 and 2017.”
So how did Politifact justify its ruling that EPA is telling a half-falsehood in stating emissions are down under President Trump? Politifact justified its ruling by stating emissions – under the booming Trump economy – are not falling quite as quickly as they did under the stagnant Obama economy. EPA, of course, never asserted that emissions under Trump are declining faster than at all other times in U.S. history. It simply pointed out that emissions are down. EPA could have additionally pointed out that emissions under the Trump administration are lower than at any point in the Obama administration. Regardless, the pace of emissions reductions under Trump are irrelevant to the truthfulness of EPA’s statement that emissions are down under Trump.
True to form, the leftist media cannot bring itself to report anything that could be interpreted as strong performance by President Trump and the Trump economy. By inventing new parameters that are completely irrelevant to EPA’s reporting that emissions are down under the Trump administration, Politifact has once again disgraced itself as a self-appointed political fact-checker.