“President Trump has chosen to recklessly bury his head in the sand,” said the quote, which appeared at the top of the EPA press release’s litany of reactions to President Donald Trump’s climate order. | Getty EPA climate release tries to praise Trump but blasts him instead

An EPA effort to showcase praise for President Donald Trump’s climate moves went awry today — and instead accused Trump of choosing “to recklessly bury his head in the sand.”

The criticism came in a quote from Democratic Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, which EPA inaccurately attributed to Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a strong supporter of the coal industry and Trump’s order.


“President Trump has chosen to recklessly bury his head in the sand,” said the quote, which appeared at the top of the EPA press release’s litany of reactions to Trump’s climate order. The quote added that the order "calls into question America’s credibility," and said the president and Administrator Scott Pruitt "have chosen to shirk our responsibility, disregard clear science and undo the significant progress our country has made.”

Carper is the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee. Capito’s actual statement, of course, praised Trump and the executive order, which instructed the agency to roll back a series of former President Barack Obama’s most important climate change initiatives.

“An internal draft was mistakenly sent with a quote that belonged to Senator Carper but was wrongly attributed to Senator Capito, whom we originally meant to quote,” an EPA spokesman said in an email. “We apologize for the error and are making sure that our process is improved as we build our team.”

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The agency swiftly issued a new version of the email, which also corrected the spelling of Capito's first name.

Trump specifically named Capito at the signing Tuesday at EPA headquarters in thanking various lawmakers, Cabinet members and industry leaders for their work.

“And Shelley, thank you very much also, I spotted you in the audience. Thank you,” Trump said.

EPA’s list also included praise from Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, as well as various industry groups, including the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity and the American Petroleum Institute.

