AP FACT CHECK: Clean air, dirty ballot claims not so clear

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is muddying up claims about clean air and dirty election ballots in the U.S., falsely taking credit for lower gasoline prices and misrepresenting Democratic rival Joe Biden’s stance on the suburbs.

A look at some of his claims Tuesday and how they match up with the facts:

ENERGY and ENVIRONMENT

TRUMP: “Instead of focusing on radical ideology, my administration is focused on delivering real results. And that’s what we have. Right now we have the cleanest air ever we’ve ever had in this country — let’s say over the last 40 years.” — remarks in Jupiter, Florida.

FACTS: He’s not responsible for all of the progress — far from it.

All six air pollution measurements monitored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showed that in 2019 the U.S. air was the cleanest on record. However, the most important pollutant, tiny particles, was essentially about the same as 2016, only down 1%, according to Carnegie Mellon University environmental engineering professor Neil Donahue. The same figures also showed that air pollution rose in the first two years of the Trump administration before falling greatly in 2019.

Donahue and three other outside experts in air pollution said the president was wrongly taking credit for what years, even decades, of ever-increasing emissions restrictions caused.

H. Christopher Frey, an engineering professor at North Carolina State University and former chief of the EPA’s air quality scientific advisory board, said that “current trends in air quality are for reasons irrespective of, or despite, policies of the Trump Administration.” Instead he and Donahue attributed it to a shift from use of dirtier coal — which the Trump administration has fought against — and newer, cleaner...