Many hoped that the promises Trump made during his campaign regarding the environment and the institutions put in place for sustainable environmental development and emissions control would not rematerialize during his presidency. However, recently much of the progress toward sustainable development and the global reduction of emissions that has been made in recent years is being seriously threatened by legislation and policy changes proposed by the Trump administration. Throughout the presidential campaign, Mr. Trump vowed to roll back Mr. Obama’s major climate change policies, a set of ambitious E.P.A. regulations to curb greenhouse pollution from coal-fired power plants. He made clear that American leadership in the global campaign against climate change would take a back seat to his commitment to energy industry jobs. Let’s look at the three biggest changes that have happened since President Trump took office:
The March 28th Executive Order
With the support of mining company executives, President Trump confirmed his commitment to bolstering the American mining industry by issuing an executive order on Tuesday, effectively nullifying President Obama’s previous initiatives on climate change controls in industry. The order acts to further confirm that Trump intends to reverse American policy regarding climate change. Under the Obama administration, the United States increased its position as a global leader in efforts to reduce the global production of carbon dioxide and other pollutants, making it a key segment of national policy.
At the ceremony, Trump instructed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to immediately begin the long, complex task of dismantling Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which would have closed “hundreds of coal-fired power plants, frozen construction of new plants and replaced them with vast new wind and solar farms”, according to the New York Times. Trump ended the meeting by celebrating the fact that his efforts would be putting miners “back to work”, regardless of the subsequent public anxiety over climate change the policy shift would create.
The 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change
Overall, the goal of the Paris deal is to keep the planet from warming more than 3.6 degrees, the point at which scientists say the earth will be irrevocably locked into a future of severe droughts, floods, rising sea levels and food shortages. The United State’s ability to reduce emissions in compliance with the agreement has been heavily damaged Tuesday’s executive order. The Obama administration pledged that the United States would cut its emissions by 26% by the year 2025, and the Clean Power Plan was particularly critical to meeting that goal.
Environmental analysts have suggested that, as the U.S. steps down from leadership in controlling global climate change, other countries will quickly step in to fill that role, reaping large long-term benefits of a low-carbon economy. By contrast, Trump’s coal and oil based solution to the present slumps in those is likely to prove successful in the short-term at best, and is likely to have a devastating long-term environmental and economic cost.
Another large concern is whether other countries will maintain their commitment to the Paris agreement in the absence of U.S. leadership. While many diplomats have said they intend to continue their emission reduction efforts. However, major concerns exist with respect to the reductions pledged by China, India, and Brazil (three of the world’s greatest polluting countries) as the United States’ moves are likely to embolden opponents of climate action and empower business and political interests in those nations in particular.
Trump has not yet formally withdrawn from the Paris agreement. But, by continuing to roll back policies intended to reduce emissions, the United States will be announcing to the world that it will no longer comply with the terms of the agreement, and will threaten the stability of the entire project.
Keystone XL Oil Pipeline
The administration announced Friday, March 24th that it would issue an official permit approving the construction of the highly controversial controversial Keystone Pipeline, completely reversing the position the Obama administration maintained since 2015 (after the careful review of a seven-year-long investigation into the project), to the exasperation of environmentalists. Upon completion, the 1,179 mile pipeline is expected to carry 800,000 barrels of carbon-rich petroleum from Canada to the Gulf Coast per year.
The majority of estimations indicate that the construction of the pipeline will neither significantly bolster the domestic oil industry and stimulate job production to the extent supporters claim, nor be as environmentally disastrous as opponents claim. Originally, the rejection of the pipeline was viewed as largely symbolic, showing the world the United States’ commitment to and leadership in the global reduction of greenhouse gasses, a goal central to the Obama administration’s foreign policy. However, the Trump administration’s decision to grant the construction permit is a critical indication that environmental concerns and United States leadership in emission reduction is likely to be ignored in favor of the president’s economic agenda.
These changes come at a time when the the Trump administration is being criticized for policy changes across the board regarding issues that matter deeply to the American people, including controversial attitudes towards immigration policy, federal policy toward domestic manufacturing and agricultural industries, and policy toward racial, gender and sexuality minorities.
Still, it is unlikely that Trump’s orders will completely dismantle Obama’s climate change legacy. Experts say it could take years for the EPA to navigate the withdrawal and replacement of climate change regulations, and the process will be hit by legal challenges at every turn. A coalition of states, including New York and California, has already vowed to fight the administration, claiming that any re-write of the current laws would have to produce something similar to the Clean Power Plan, in order to be in compliance with the American Clean Air Act and years of established environmental case law.