Appearing on MSNBC on Thursday, NBC Chief Environmental Affairs Anne Thompson blasted the Trump administration for proposing a possible rollback of Obama-era environmental regulations, warning that such a policy shift would “put more of the emissions into the atmosphere that fuel climate change” and spark “an environmental civil war.”
In the 11:00 a.m. ET hour, anchor Ali Velshi asked Thompson to explain the “real-life impact” of the potential change to national fuel economy standards for motor vehicles. Thompson fretted: “...the Trump administration says what they’re going to do is save consumers money on the cost of a new car by lowering fuel economy standards. The reality is, you will also be buying cars that use more gas and put more greenhouse gas emissions into the air....it will cost you more at the pump and it will also put more of the emissions into the atmosphere that fuel climate change.”
Moments later, Thompson actually praised the Obama administration for essentially extorting American auto companies into accepting the tighter regulations in exchange for government bailout funds: “Remember, these standards were enacted when GM and Chrysler had filed for bankruptcy, so the government really had the car companies where they wanted them.”
Near the end of the segment, Thompson assured MSNBC’s left-wing viewers that California was coming to the rescue:
The wild card in all of this? California. Because in doing this, the administration wants to rescind the waiver that allows California to set its own emission standards. California Governor Jerry Brown tweeted this morning, says, “We will fight this stupid idea in every way possible.” 19 attorneys general around the country are promising to sue the Trump administration over this. So we are about to see an environmental civil war in this country over these rollbacks.
In the 12:00 p.m. ET hour, anchor Andrea Mitchell breathlessly proclaimed:
President Trump is again taking direct aim at his predecessor’s legacy, launching a direct attack against key Obama initiatives. The Trump administration today moving to reverse federal fuel economy standards aimed at getting cars and trucks to average more than 50 miles per gallon by 2025. This is one of the most effective actions to fight pollution, to save money, to reduce oil consumption, to improve health.
Thompson showed up again to double down on her talk of “environmental civil war”: “...the Obama administration put these standards in place in order to increase fuel efficiency to reduce the impact of climate change. And so, by stopping the increase in fuel efficiency standards at 2020 today, in effect, the Trump administration has set off an environmental civil war in this country.”
She reiterated that “California Governor Jerry Brown says he will everything to fight what he called ‘this stupidity’ on every level” and how “19 attorneys general and the attorney general of Washington, D.C. have said they’re going to file a lawsuit against the administration to stop the rollback of these standards, because they say the country needs to do more to protect the nation from the impacts of climate change.”
Thompson has a long history of using her media platform to preach environmental activism. Here are just a few examples from recent years:
NBC Asks Al Gore About GOP ‘Threat’ to Climate Change ‘Progress’
NBC’s Anne Thompson Gushes Over U.S.-China Climate Deal; Frets GOP ‘Already Setting Up Roadblocks’
NBC Freaks Out Over New Climate Change Report: ‘Threat To Lady Liberty Herself’
Panicked NBC: 'World Must Act Now' to 'Avert Disaster' of Climate Change
NBC: Ignore Arctic Temperatures Nationwide, Global Warming is Happening
NBC: Polar Bears Like 'Passengers on the Titanic' Because of Global Warming
Here are excerpts of Thompson’s August 2 exchange with Velshi on MSNBC Live:
11:44 AM ET
ALI VELSHI: The Trump administration is proposing a freeze on mile-per-gallon standards in a move they say will keep car prices lower.
(...)
VELSHI: Joining me is NBC News Chief Environmental Affairs Correspondent Anne Thompson, who has just gotten off the phone, I think, with the Department of Transportation and the EPA to try to make sense of what’s going on.
ANNE THOMPSON: EPA, yup.
VELSHI: Talk to me about what the real-life impact of this is.
THOMPSON: The real-life impact, the Trump administration says what they’re going to do is save consumers money on the cost of a new car by lowering fuel economy standards. That will save you about $2,340 on the cost of a new car. The reality is, you will also be buying cars that use more gas and put more greenhouse gas emissions into the air. So, it’s – it will cost you more at the pump and it will also put more of the emissions into the atmosphere that fuel climate change.
(...)
11:46 AM ET
VELSHI: So to what impact does the government, these Obama standards, have on cars becoming more fuel efficient?
THOMPSON: Remember, these standards were enacted when GM and Chrysler had filed for bankruptcy, so the government really had the car companies where they wanted them. And that they enacted these, and since they’ve enacted these, fuel – cars have become more fuel efficient. Would they have become more fuel efficient without government standards?
VELSHI: That’s the question I’m asking.
THOMPSON: I’m not so sure. I mean, Detroit is all about the bottom line. That’s the most important thing to them.
(...)
11:48 AM ET
VELSHI: Will people move toward lower fuel efficiency if not forced to buy higher fuel efficiency?
THOMPSON: They will move to whatever they like best at that moment. And that is now because nobody – gas prices are not top-of-mind as they once were, let’s say, five or six years ago. They have moved to more SUVs, more light trucks, as opposed to those compact cars that become all the rage when gas prices go absurdly high.
VELSHI: The administration’s making a very unusual safety argument here, what is that?
THOMPSON: They are. What they say is that this will actually make the roads safer because new cars will be cheaper under these standards, therefore people will buy new cars more often and that will get the new cars on the road that have the best technology to protect you and to protect the environment. That’s their argument.
The wild card in all of this? California. Because in doing this, the administration wants to rescind the waiver that allows California to set its own emission standards. California Governor Jerry Brown tweeted this morning, says, “We will fight this stupid idea in every way possible.” 19 attorneys general around the country are promising to sue the Trump administration over this. So we are about to see an environmental civil war in this country over these rollbacks.
VELSHI: Wow. Anne, thanks very much for your reporting on this.
(...)
