The War On The Environment
A closer look at Trump's 100+ Days of Destruction.
Given Trump’s ignorant and greedy agenda when it comes to the environment, everyone knew this was going to be really bad. Sadly, it’s only going to get worse.
Of course, Trump (again) took us out of the Paris Climate Treaty on day one. But, his vengeance for anything perceived as green — even if creating good jobs — has been vicious. Especially to poor communities.
He canceled over 20 Environmental Justice Grants to improve air quality, mitigate pollution and hazardous waste in predominantly poor areas with a high percentage of minorities. Trump is also trying to illegally rescind environmental projects approved by the Biden administration, in red and blue states, many already with ground broken.
Environmental lawyers say two new White House directives are designed to greatly expand executive powers to strike down federal energy and environmental regulations. The orders apply to all regulations issued under laws governing things like energy appliance standards, mining and offshore drilling — as well as regulations issued under the Endangered Species Act.
A recent article in The Guardian looked at the breadth and depth of the attack:
In all, the second Trump administration has launched 145 actions – a dizzying rate of more than one a day since the 20 January inauguration – to repeal or weaken environmental rules and escalate the use of planet-heating fossil fuels, a Guardian analysis has found. The total is derived from research by Columbia Law School, Harvard Law School and administration announcements.
While many of these initial moves are far from complete and face severe legal challenges, or years of further rule-making, the pace of the rollbacks is already set to outstrip Trump’s entire first presidency, which saw about 110 environmental rules scaled back or revoked.
“What we’ve seen in this first 100 days is unprecedented – the deregulatory ambition of this administration is mind-blowing,” said Michael Burger, an expert in climate law at Columbia University.
“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.”
And the attack on the environment isn’t just federal. Want to go one state’s rights step further? Trump also is trying to take legal action to override state environmental regulations.
This is not just a broad-based attack not on anything that might help mitigate Climate Change. It’s a wholesale attack on any and all environmental regulation that we’ve come to take for granted. And a ton of that is stuff that most of us don’t even know about because of most of it had a bipartisan consensus, even a few years ago.
No more. Reports on the upcoming budget and more executive actions warn of “The biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history,” many of them environmental.
This likely includes an easing (or elimination) of PFAS regulations. These "forever chemicals" (because they don't break down easily) are found in a wide range of products, including stain-resistant fabrics, firefighting foams, and food packaging. They cause cancer, developmental issues, and hormone disruption.
Maybe something RFK could look into?
Speaking of health, cuts to the FDA have already resulted in the elimination of many of the people who inspect milk in this country. Fun fact: Before milk regulations, producers often put chalk in spoiled milk to make it look white and mix it with formaldehyde to mask to taste. Seriously.
If this continues through the safety of the food chain we won’t be getting recalls because of E. coli or salmonella infected more and more food. Because the FDA as we knew it won’t be there. We’ll find out through local news reports of people dropping like flies and everyone panicking.
And these cuts don’t just cover the usual suspects — like meat processing and even bad handling of vegetables. It goes into everything.
Want to know one of the reasons why egg prices have come down slightly during the ongoing Bird Flu pandemic? We eased regulations on imported eggs from South America that were once only approved for use in animal feed but are now in countless products on the shelf that you never think include eggs.