President Donald Trump has enacted a sweeping number of policies that could harm the environment and hamper goals for greenhouse gas reductions, some experts say.
President Donald Trump has enacted a sweeping number of policies that could harm the environment and hamper goals for greenhouse gas reductions during his first 100 days in office, according to environmental policy experts.
When Trump was inaugurated for his second term on Jan. 20, his administration came prepared — shattering the record for the most executive orders signed on the first day in office.
Several of the 54 executive orders signed on Inauguration Day impacted the environment, including a declaration of a national energy emergency, withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement for the second time and rolling back drilling restrictions on federal lands and waters.
The policies are largely shrouded in the idea of U.S. independence or «putting America first», the orders state.
The Trump administration has engaged in a «flood the zone» strategy to overwhelm the environmental community and make it nearly impossible for them to respond to every single executive order, Dan Esty, a professor of environmental law and policy at Yale University and former commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, .
While some of the Trump administration’s «anti-environment» policies, as Esty called them, are garnering more attention than others, he added the public shouldn’t ignore the seemingly minor rollbacks or actions.
«There are a number of more subtle actions that the Trump administration has taken that also have considerable corrosive effect on our efforts to promote action on climate change and a sustainable future more broadly», he said.
One example experts cited is the rollback of the social cost of carbon regulation, a policy implemented during the Obama administration, Esty said. This decision could upend energy and environmental regulations designed to address the greenhouse gas emissions that heavily contribute to climate change, he explained.
«The takedown of the social cost of carbon has subtle but pervasive effects that will really damage environmental protection», Esty said.
Another example is Trump’s executive order to protect «American energy from state overreach», which contains language that could block enforcement of state and local laws that intervene in the production or use of coal, oil, natural gas, hydropower, geothermal, biofuel and nuclear energy. The order centralizes energy regulation at the federal level and targets policies that restrict carbon emissions, which could further derail decarbonization efforts and roll back clean air and water protections, experts say.
On Monday, the Trump administration dismissed the authors of the Sixth National Climate Assessment report — the U.S. government’s preeminent report on the risks, impacts and responses to climate change mandated by Congress and produced every four years.
