Popovich, N. Albeck-Ripka, L. Pierre-Louis, K. (2020, November 10) The Trump Administration Is Reversing More Than 100 Environmental Rules. Here’s the Full List. Retrieved November 14, 2020, from
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks-list.html
The New York Times keeps a running tally of the environmental rule reversals that the Trump administration is attempting to complete. This includes reversals that have already occurred as well as those that are in progress. The Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for many of these reversals. Certain states are trying to sue and block these rollbacks from happening. The Times notes how detrimental these rollbacks could be to the environment. There will be increases in greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution will increase.
I knew that President Trump had been trying to roll back Obama and previous presidents’ work to combat climate change. However, I did not realize how extensive his efforts have been. Trump has succeeded in reversing 84 regulations thus far with an end goal of 104. I thought that pulling out of the Paris Accords would be detrimental to the environment and increase the US’ negative impact on the environment greatly. I’m surprised that the emphasis has been fully on how Trump handled the Paris Accords and not on these dozens of other regulations that he is trying to repeal and reverse. I’m glad that there are different states that are trying to sue the EPA, but some of these reversals have gotten through court and have not been struck down during judicial processing. I hope that with the election of Joe Biden that the US will be able to reinstitute some of these regulations. The US is one of the largest polluters in the world. It is our responsibility to decrease our impact on the environment and make sure that we do not drastically increase our pollution from what it has been these past decades.
I actually read this article when it was first published and remember being a bit shocked to the extent of his efforts, and hopeful that there had been so much pushback. Interestingly, Gina McArthy, the former chief of the EPA under Obama, is involved in almost 100 lawsuits pushing back on Trump’s efforts. Of course, we don’t want to just assume all of the env. protections were written as effective laws, but Trump’s deregulation of everything is over the top. What do you think about his power to do these things? And Biden’s power to potentially undo these things. Is it too much power, which creates instability as the politicians change? In the meanwhile, currently, Congress is in a stalemat and can’t seem to get too much done- should the president be able to put through their agenda without congress?
I do think that this list shows how much power the president has. In matters like this, that affect not only our country but countless others, I believe that there probably should be more regulation and collaboration between the branches of government. In our current situation, whatever the views of the president is the legislation that we have. This should be a bipartisan effort. In reality, the safety and regulation of the climate and environment should not be partisan issues, but they are, so it should be a bipartisan effort.