Don’t let Donald Trump undermine your faith in the climate fight | Gina McCarthy

The president's fossil-fuel obsession can't stop global progress, writes the former Environmental Protection Agency head

Over the past decade, the United States has turned technologies into tools that strengthened our economy, delivered good-paying union jobs, cleaned up our air and water, conserved our precious natural resources, and saved families money all across our country. Yet now the country is choosing to cede that leadership, letting China dominate and control the clean-energy market across the world. It's no surprise that people are scratching their heads, wondering what happened.

Our president is obsessed with fossil fuels. He wants to resuscitate what everyone knows is a dying coal sector while turning a blind eye to the health, environmental, and economic downsides of the climate crisis. Coupled with inconsistent threats of increased tariffs against virtually all our allies, he has isolated the US and amplified threats to global security.

Gina McCarthy is the managing co-chair of America Is All In, former White House national climate adviser and 13th US EPA administrator