Within his first few weeks in office, President Donald Trump has signed off on dozens of executive orders, with many impacting the environment.
To name a few, these orders will allow new fossil fuel projects to bypass environmental protections, reopen offshore oil drilling, increase gas and oil developments, eliminate the tax credits Biden gave for electric vehicles and withdraw wind energy permits, according to @environment on Instagram.
He also withdrew from the UN Paris Agreement regarding climate change. Additionally, @environment on Instagram reported that Trump “terminat[ed] all environmental justice-related positions, committees, programs, services, activities, and budgets,” and took down the White House’s environmental justice page. This is incredibly suspicious — why take it down if you have nothing to hide?
Supporters of this plan, such as Fox News, were quick to accuse the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of being fraudulent and a waste of money when Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, supposedly found $20 billion in a parked car.
These actions will have incredibly detrimental effects on the climate and the U.S. population. For starters, “at least $19 billion in Environmental Protection Agency funding to thousands of state and local governments and nonprofits remained on hold as of Feb. 14,” Inside Climate News reported.
“Among the efforts on hold: clean drinking water, air monitoring, hurricane recovery and electric school buses.” This puts countless Americans at risk for contaminated drinking water and lack of aid following natural disasters, which are becoming increasingly more common due to climate change.
Speaking of risks to American health, the reduced funds for the EPA reduces the level of aid they can give to areas most affected by toxic waste, for example, which disproportionately impacts communities of color. “Exide Technologies in southeast Los Angeles polluted thousands of properties with lead and contributed to groundwater contamination with trichloroethylene, or TCE, a cancer-causing chemical,” according to the Associated Press.
“Among the efforts on hold: clean drinking water, air monitoring, hurricane recovery and electric school buses.”
-Inside Climate News
To make matters worse, the U.S. is the one of the largest producers of greenhouse gases, second only to China. The Trump administration also declared a National Energy Emergency, which according to NPR, “grant[s] the president the authority to suspend some environmental regulations or impose restrictions on crude oil exports,” if he chooses to do so.
This seems to be his goal, as he’s already begun reducing or reversing environmental regulations. If these attacks on environmental protections continue at its current rate, the world as we know it will cease to exist. The EPA works to provide clean, safe water, helps make laws to enforce human safety and health, inspects chemicals, cleans up toxic waste and more.
Already, an estimated 20% of the U.S. population — between 71 and 95 million Americans — “potentially rely on groundwater with detectable levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) for their drinking water,” according to the Association of Health Care Journalists. This would be devastating for the population if these matters worsened.
At the moment, it may seem like there’s very little the general public can do. However, this is far from true. Everyone can have an impact on the state of the world right now, even if it’s something as small as talking with your peers about these issues and educating yourself. Additionally, there are organizations, such as Earthjustice, Greenpeace and the Environmental Defense Fund who are currently working to reduce the implications of these executive orders and to protect the environment — despite all odds.
jamabil3@ramapo.edu
Featured photo courtesy of @atmovfx, Instagram
