Eilperin, J. Stein, J. (2020, June 4) Trump signs order to waive environmental reviews for key projects. Retrieved November 14, 2020 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/06/04/trump-sign-order-waive-environmental-reviews-key-projects/
President Trump signed an executive order that allows approval for projects to continue without looking at environmental laws/regulations. By declaring a state of economic emergency, the president is able to make it so that proposed projects do not have to conform to environmental rules in order to start. The president says that this will help the country get out of the economic slump caused by the coronavirus and that the economy in this case is more important than the environment.
Throughout the pandemic, the president has made it clear that he values the economy over anything else. He values the economy over people’s lives and therefore it makes sense that he would feel the same way about the environment. Previous executive orders and repeals of environmental regulations also show Trump’s track record of caring less about the environment than previous lawmakers. The environmental impact of this executive order could be catastrophic. This is not the president repealing a few regulations or allowing a few companies to go over allowed pollution limits. This executive order would make every regulation null and void when it comes to projects like pipelines and highways. If these projects were to continue with no attempt to lessen their impact on the environment, there could be huge negative effects.
I think it’s insane that the President of the US is so reluctant about the environment. By passing an executive order to allow projects to continue without taking environmental factors into consideration is not smart. We all are impacted by the changes in which occur in an ecosystem. Do you think ignoring environmental issues will even positively impact our economy?
I think that the president hopes that ignoring these environmental issues would positively impact the economy. At the very least, he hopes to stay in the good graces of the executives of large industries like fossil fuels. In reality, I don’t think it will matter if the economy is positively impacted because people will be dying from the effects of climate change.