More assaults on the environment then in his entire first term
By Tom Molloy
As just reported in The Guardian, Trump has launched 145 actions in his first 100 days to undo rules protecting the environment, more than were completed in his entire first term.
Michael Burger, an expert in climate law at Columbia University, says “They are doing things faster and with less process than last time, often disregarding the law. The intent is to shock, overwhelm and to overcome resistance through sheer force of numbers.”
Through policy moves, the Trump administration has deleted green policies, stopped climate spending, again removed the U.S. from the Paris climate accord, and set about rewriting pollution standards for cars, trucks and power plants. In a recent executive order, Trump instructed the Department of Justice to “stop the enforcement” of state climate laws.
Vast tracts of land have been earmarked for new oil and gas drilling, commercial fishing allowed again in ocean sanctuaries, about half of US National Forests opened to logging. Laws protecting endangered species are set to be cut back and there are plans to shrink protected National Monuments .
Jason Rylander, legal director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s climate law institute says: “Never before has an American President been so hostile to science and so beholden to fossil fuel interests. Every move Trump makes, from rolling back clean car standards to propping up dirty coal, takes the country and the world backwards to a time only he and his robber baron friends think was great.”
Christine Todd Whitman, EPA administrator during Republican President George W. Bush’s first term in office, said Trump has been “very systematic in dismantling” the agency.
“They’ve done more damage to the environment in this 100 days than they managed to do in the whole first term,” Whitman told Newsweek. She said she was especially concerned that, in addition to attempting to roll back regulations, the administration has signaled to polluting industries that it will not fully enforce existing rules. “They’re just wholesale saying, ‘We’re not going to enforce this anymore,’ and without any justification for why that is in the public’s best interest.”
With the Congress and Senate having relinquished their historic roles to check the Presidency, the only remaining hope is the courts. Join me in supporting environmental and other organizations who are filing lawsuits to slow the assault.
