Photo by Ollie Atkins, White House photographer.
After President Richard Nixon proposed establishing the U.S. Environmental Protect Agency on July 9, 1970, Republicans have assumed some level of responsibility for cleaning our air and water. Yes, oil, gas, and coal came to heavily, heavily support Republicans (almost entirely support Republicans), funding their campaigns and then lobbying them until the get what they want. That has long related to the fact that Democrats have much more strongly worked on protecting our natural resources and pushing for climate action. But, like with many things, Donald Trump has taken attacks on the environment and climate to another level.
There are some fairly well known moves, like putting oil, gas, and coal lobbyists and operatives (swamp creatures) in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, and Bureau of Land Management. The results have been disastrous. However, Trump has done much more than appoint foxes to raid the hen houses.
According to a running New York Times tally, the Trump Administration has reversed 72 environmental rules, allowing more and more pollution and harm to the ecosystems that we rely on to live comfortable human lives. Another 27 rollbacks are in progress.
Similarly, The Guardian has published “75 ways Trump made America dirtier and the planet warmer.”
Again, this is not even normal Republican-level hits on environmental regulations. As he has done with a number of controversial issues, Trump has taken it to an unprecedented, shocking level. As the New York Times writers put it, “While other administrations have emphasized cutting regulations, calling them burdensome to industries like coal, oil and gas, the scope of actions under Mr. Trump is ‘fundamentally different,’ said Hana V. Vizcarra, a staff attorney at Harvard Law School’s Environmental and Energy Law Program.”
Whether you do so on the New York Times, The Guardian, or Harvard’s website, you can scroll down the long list of ways that the Trump administration has thrown attacks at our air, water, and climate if you want to get the full details. You can almost feel the cancer building up as you do that.
There’s no point in me repeating or trying to rephrase each of these crimes against nature (which, I’ll remind you, we’re all a part of). However, here’s the current breakdown by category according to the New York Times:
Table courtesy New York Times.
If environmental matters or climate matters are critical to your choice for president, consider well which one of the candidates will listen to the scientists on the matters at hand. It’s not complicated, even though the choice should be a relatively easy one.
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- Trump’s Policies Indicate Love For Toxic & Deadly Pollution, Not Electric Vehicles
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- Joseph Biden Better For Economy — Wharton Business School, Goldman Sachs, & Moody’s Forecasts
- Presidential Climate Policy Report Card: Obama, Trump, & Biden — A CleanTechnica Exclusive
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