U.S. President Donald Trump has unleashed a reign of terror against the environment, killing climate action and ramping up government support for fossil fuels. His administration has all but declared war on nature. During his three years in office, his administration has rolled back 88 environmental regulations.* Here are 8 additional environmental assaults perpetrated by Trump and his administration in the last 6 months.
1. Trump’s EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers finalized their repeal of the Clean Water Rule, jeopardizing the drinking water supplies of millions of Americans while rewarding its polluting industry allies. This move guts clean water safeguards and give fossil fuel giants, factory farms, and other industrial polluters a green light to contaminate thousands of vital streams, wetlands, and other water sources that feed our drinking water supplies.
2. The commander-and-chief escalated his attack on landmark clean car standards by moving to strip the authority of California and 13 other states to implement their existing tailpipe emissions standards.
3. Trump ordered the Forest Service to exempt Tongass National Forest from the Roadless Rule that protects millions of acres of federal land from road building and logging.
4. The White House cut off funding for the Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Interior Department’s Invasive Species Advisory Committee (ISAC).
5. Trump’s Interior Department gave a sweetheart deal to offshore oil companies.
6. The administration signed off on an order to open up more than 1 million acres of land in California to fracking and conventional oil drilling.
7. This presidency cleared the way to allow fracking companies to avoid having to clean up the messes they leave behind.
8. Trump started off the new year by telling federal agencies they should no longer take climate change into account when assessing infrastructure projects like pipelines and oil wells.
- According to the New York Times, the Trump administration killed or rolled back more than 100 environmental regulations.
