WASHINGTON - The Trump campaign is seeking a list of"climate change victories" that can be attributed to Mr Donald Trump's presidency, reflecting a shift in strategy ahead of the 2020 election as polls show growing voter concern over global warming, two sources familiar with the campaign told McClatchy this week.
White House officials have liaised with the Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of the campaign seeking a concrete list of accomplishments, according to one source. And campaign officials are encouraging the president to begin racking up visible environmental victories specific to battleground states, such as Michigan and Florida, critical to Mr Trump's reelection bid and where climate change has increased in importance to voters.
The Trump campaign will argue that private sector innovation - not regulations - have proven under the Trump presidency to be a more effective method of cutting emissions from major industrial sources. Three Republican senators - Mr Mitt Romney of Utah, Mr Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Mr Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who is a confidant of the president - advocated for a viable Republican alternative to the Democrats' Green New Deal on climate last month, proposing a federal programme that would incentivise businesses to spawn new emission-cutting technologies and to reduce pollutants already in the atmosphere.
"The United States government takes seriously the issue of climate change, and it is important that policies and decision-making be based on transparent and defensible science," the senior administration official said. The initial idea of a presidential committee was proposed by Mr William Happer, a physicist and prominent critic of conventional climate science, who joined the National Security Council as director of emerging technologies in September.