Two years since Trump: Environmental policy under the 46th U.S. President

Author

Erin Connolly

​On 8th November, 2016, Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election. He promised to destroy Obama-era environmental sanctions, claiming that they stifle economic growth. After campaigning on climate change skepticism and support for the U.S. fossil fuel industry, he nominated Scott Pruitt, an opponent of active environmental regulation, to head the EPA. Almost immediately, the term ‘climate change’ disappeared from the EPA website. Pruitt began work dismantling clean air and water rules, sometimes resulting in high-profile battles with environmental groups. He weakened prosecution of environmental criminals, deeply slashed EPA budgets in favour of military spending, and effectively ignored the years-long water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Under Trump’s executive order, Pruitt attempted to repeal Obama’s Clean Power Plan in March 2017, but was eventually blocked by the Supreme Court. With much thanks to Pruitt’s influence as a presidential advisor, Trump pulled out of the Paris Agreement in June 2017. In a televised interview, Pruitt called the agreement ‘a bad deal for America’.

About a year later, Pruitt resigned from his EPA post, drowning in corruption and scandal. Andrew Wheeler has been acting head of the agency since July 2018, a former coal industry lobbyist who undoubtedly retains close ties to fossil fuels. In Wheeler’s first three months, the EPA loosened regulations around vehicular carbon dioxide pollution, coal-fired power plants’ emissions, and control of methane leaks. These three proposals were effectively requests from oil companies translated into environmental policy. These same oil companies have spent tens of millions of dollars shutting down carbon taxes, clean energy programs, and climate change action.
 
Trump and his cabinet have irreparably damaged the environment. What follows is a (very, very condensed) list of some key actions taken by the Trump administration in the past two years. A more comprehensive collection can be found here.

• Revoked the U.S. Department of the Interior’s ‘Stream Protection Rule’, reopening opportunity to dump mining waste into local streams
• Rescinded a ban of lead ammunition on federal lands and waters, an action highly supported by the NRA
• Withdrew request for detailed tracking of oil and natural gas emissions data
• Removed the word ‘science’ from the EPA’s Office of Science and Technology’s mission statement
• Publicly stated that ‘carbon dioxide’s role in the Earth’s changing climate remains unclear’
• Delayed listing of the US bumblebee as endangered
• Approved construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, a move tied to significant carbon emissions and potential water contamination on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation
• Rejected a ban of the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which may be associated with brain damage in children and farmworkers
• Signed an executive order to expand offshore oil and gas drilling
• Proposed a 2018 budget with a $1.5 billion cut to the U.S. Department of the Interior, which controls the National Park Service
• Cancelled a rule protect whales and sea turtles from fishing nets
• Disbanded a federal advisory panel for the National Climate Assessment
• Planned to downsize national monument protected areas nationwide
• Dropped climate change from the list of national security threats
• Proposed major cuts to clean energy research
• Removed ‘climate change’ from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s strategic plan, despite the increase in national weather disasters
• Cut NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System
• Proposed harmful changes to the Environmental Species Act, lessening protections of hundreds of threatened species
• Disbanded air pollution review panel
• Approved first-ever Arctic offshore oil wells

 
Hidden among this multitude of harmful decisions lay a few significant successes:

• The Keystone XL Pipeline was eventually blocked by a federal judge
• Trump donated about $80,000 of his presidential salary to the National Park Service
• 21 youths sued the federal government for its role in climate change, and the Supreme Court refused Trump’s request to block the case
• Trump signed a bill sponsored by Democratic senators to improve ocean plastic cleanup worldwide
• The ban on mining near Yellowstone National Park was extended for another 20 years

 
Just this past week, the 2018 midterm elections saw many successes and near-misses for U.S. climate policy. Because of EPA inaction and executive orders working to repeal almost all Obama-era environmental policy, climate change action now occurs mainly at the state level. For example, after Trump pulled out of the Paris Agreement, 16 states immediately announced that they would continue to abide by those sanctions and targets regardless. Last Tuesday, some key propositions were defeated, including one for an increase in solar energy in Arizona. Others were wildly successful, like the Florida amendment banning offshore drilling (and indoor workplace vaping). Democrats won back a majority in the Congressional House of Representatives; climate change policy will likely sit high on the list of priorities. Overall, the 2018 midterms saw both successes and failures for U.S. environmental policy, but limited progress is still progress. In the wake of the 2018 IPCC report on the impacts of 1.5 degrees of warming, any and all political action is welcomed and necessary to protect our planet.
 
 
Resources
 
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/03/how-trump-is-changing-science-environment/?user.testname=none
 
http://theconversation.com/epa-staff-say-the-trump-administration-is-changing-their-mission-from-protecting-human-health-and-the-environment-to-protecting-industry-96256
 
https://www.dw.com/en/trumps-lasting-damage-to-the-environment/a-44315788
 
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/climate/climate-change-midterm-elections.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fclimate&action=click&contentCollection=climate&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront
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