EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said the U.S. has "the cleanest air on record" under Trump. It doesn't.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler said America has “the cleanest air on record” on Monday, during an event at the White House where President Donald Trump gave a speech on his administration’s environmental record.

But as pointed out by The Atlantic, Wheeler’s own agency's data refutes his claim.

Unhindered by things like data, however, Wheeler continued to spout untruths: “Pollution is on the decline, and our focus is to accelerate its decline, particularly in the most at-risk communities … Under your administration, emissions of all the criteria air pollutants have continued to decline.”

In actuality, of the six toxic air pollutants falling under the purview of the Clean Air Act, “at least three of them—ozone, nitrous oxide, and particulate matter—are more prevalent now than they were in 2016, before Trump took office, according to EPA data released this week.”

Likewise, the number of “unhealthy-air days”, when ozone or particulate matter threaten the health of children, the elderly, and people with lung conditions such as asthma, is also on the rise across the U.S.

EPA data reveals that America’s major cities experienced “nearly 14 percent more of these days in 2018 (799) than in 2016 (702).”

Trump and Wheeler’s attempts to sell the administration as environmentally conscious are comical, considering it has rolled back at least 83 environmental rules so far, has a lackluster record when it comes to enforcing rules currently on the books, and is doing virtually nothing to address climate change.

Read more here.