Environmental Protection Criticism
One of the main motifs of Trump’s administration has been fighting what they call an “anti-growth” agenda of the financial power of the United States which was supposedly put in place by the Obama administration. Despite clear proof of the environmental impact humans have made even during the years of president Obama, Trump believed that the regulations requiring businesses to spend time and money to meet the former administration’s environmental standards were slowing down the economy and have marginal impact on climate change that could be easily ignored. As a result, since the start of his presidential term, Trump had been swiftly reviewing and, in many cases, rolling back many of the policies that were upheld by Obama in order to try to protect the environment as much as possible.
National Geographic had made and article that has been tracking the decisions of the Trump’s administration that will impact America’s land, water, air, and wildlife. The general trend towards environmental protection has been negative, unfortunately, and there are no signs that Trump will change his perspectives. What started with simple denials on the media of occurring climate change during the start of Trump’s presidency, turned into actions such as executive orders that open public land for business. “States, municipalities, and NGOs have responded to these changes by filing lawsuits to block the administration” as the article states, which is understandable, as much of the country supports the scientific data that claims that humans have significantly impacted the environment already. I some cases however, such as the lawsuits against the Keystone XL pipeline, have successfully kept public land closed to additional development.
The article, which does not support the trend of executive orders of Trump, had compiled a few points about the most influential decisions on the environment that Trump’s administration has made thus far:
Perhaps one of the most significant actions the administration took at its start was the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement in June of 2017. “This is perhaps the decision that set the tone for the Trump administration’s approach to the environment” as the article states.
The Clean Power Plan was one of the Obama’s signature environmental policies. It required the energy sector to cut carbon emissions by 32 percent by 2030, but in October 2017 it was rolled back by the EPA under Trump’s administration. It is surprising that this movement did not have more opposition, as there are good alternatives for energy in a more environmentally friendly manner such as nuclear power.
Another policy that was altered was the Obama administration’s fuel economy targets, that stated that cars made after 2012 would, on average, must get 54 miles per gallon by 2025. In August 2018 however, Trump Department of Transportation and EPA had changed the numbers to a target of 34 miles per gallon by 2021. The decision created legal conflict with states like California that have higher emission caps and is the innovative leader in the United States when it comes to implementing laws that have environmental protection in mind.
These were the few examples amongst others that were mentioned in the article, others did include: revoking flood standards accounting for sea-level rise, NOAA permitting seismic air gun blasts for oil and gas drilling, plans to dramatically downsize two national monuments, and even dropping climate change from list of national security threats.
Based on these facts alone, it is questionable how Trump did not face any consequences in the form of denial and even impeachment. Certainly, if looked upon from an Eco-critical standpoint – it is clear that all of these actions go against what America has been aiming for in the past years and what the masses in many of its states believe.
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