Dr. Steven Cliff, executive officer of the California Air Resources Board, didn’t mince words when testifying Thursday before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in opposition to the agency’s proposal to reject its 2009 endangerment finding.

Cliff spoke plainly, saying the Trump administration’s EPA is a “laughingstock,” the rejection of proven climate science “marks another nail in the coffin of America’s scientific leadership,” and “China ate our lunch on solar manufacturing.”

This is a link to a video of Cliff’s testimony.

Below is a transcript of Cliff’s remarks:

I’d like to say I’m glad to be here but today feels like a funeral as this proposal marks another nail in the coffin of America’s scientific leadership.   

What was once a shining beacon and envy of the world is now a laughingstock as this administration turns its back on the science that even most fifth graders know to be true: greenhouse gas emissions are warming our planet and causing serious harm to human health and well-being.   

EPA’s proposal is based on deeply flawed assertions that rely on unfounded and cherry-picked claims that originate from the oil industry and self-proclaimed climate skeptics while ignoring the overwhelming scientific consensus. 

Thousands of scientists from around the world are not wrong.  

In this proposal, EPA is denying reality and telling every victim of climate-driven fires and floods not to believe what’s right before their eyes. Americans will not be fooled by this EPA. 

Unchecked climate emissions are wreaking havoc across the country. From Californians to Texans, red and blue — no American is immune.  

Last year there were 27 climate-driven disasters across this country, that cost human lives and if that’s not compelling to you, they cost billions of dollars, too.     

But this doesn’t have to be a horror story of economic and environmental disaster – it can be one of redemption. This isn’t a question of how – we have the solutions. We need fearless leaders who will support innovation based on real science instead of bending the knee to the well-funded polluters who’ve lined the pockets of this administration for their own personal gain.   

Just as China ate our lunch on solar manufacturing when a previous administration turned their back on this promising American invention, this proposal hands our country’s legacy of automotive innovation and manufacturing over to Beijing, Berlin and beyond.    

The world is accelerating toward cleaner vehicle technologies and will watch the United States fade in the rearview mirror because this administration is choosing to quit the race.    

The choice is yours: Believe the thousands of scientists who reject this proposal and unleash American innovation or fall for big oil’s corrupt rewrite of history and unfettered pollution.