By: Abigail Zonarich
Noted to be the “most anti-nature president in U.S. history,”[1] former president Donald Trump operated his final days in the Oval Office with vengeance against the American environment; aiming to diminish and eliminate strong protections against notoriously harmful, anti-environmental practices, Donald Trump continued to work solely for the advancement of corporate development until his final hour.
Such practice does not come as a surprise to anyone. During his four years as president, Donald Trump and his political cohorts “rolled back more than 100 environmental rules,” of which concern, inter alia, air pollution and emissions, drilling and extraction, infrastructure and planning, animals, water pollution, and toxic substances and safety.[2] However, since losing the election in November, Trump has done more for his environmental setbacks in two months than in four years.[3] Severe dissections to the Endangered Species Act, “expedited approvals to lease more than 550,000 acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for energy development,” green light go-ahead to motorway infrastructure in a wildlife reserve, and the weakening of high standards for energy efficiency have been few of many actions taken prior to Trump’s January 20, 2020 leave.[4]
Notably, the Trump Administration justified environmental harm with security and expansion of mining, fracking, and drilling-based jobs. However, nothing new shall stay if the Biden Administration has anything to say about it. President Biden believes such ‘competing interests’ can work in tandem with the guidance of science and technology. It is, therefore, President Biden’s overarching environmental goal “to prioritize both environmental justice and the creation of the well-paying union jobs necessary to deliver on the [undermentioned goals].”[5]
As the executive branch begins to say “out with the old, in with the new,” change has already commenced. Within mere hours of his swearing in, President Biden signed two notable Executive Orders: an “Acceptance on Behalf of the United States of America”[6] to re-enter into the Paris Climate Agreement, and an “Executive Order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis.”[7] Within the latter Order, it is mandated that all executive departments and agencies review, with the highest scrutiny, all of the Trump Administration’s environmental setbacks and “immediately commence work” to combat the damage exasperated by the previous administration’s orders.[8] All current and future action, President Biden undersigned, shall work to achieve ultimate goals, among others listed, “to improve public health and protect our environment; . . . to bolster resilience to the impacts of climate change . . .”[9]
Unfortunately, only after years and the changing of various presidential administrations will we see significant change to the ongoing climate crisis. The Biden Administration, contrary to the Trump Administration’s practices, will follow heavily in the footsteps of scientific and analytical pursuits and expertise and bring the United States up to par with the rest of the world. Scientific expertise shall assist in changing the course of legal precedent, but not without its challenges. Reward shall only come with immense legal impact, something that presidential-appointees of executive agencies, governmental attorneys, legislative members, and President Biden must all carry out to the highest practicum. If the first day of the Biden Administration is any proof, change will come swiftly and without hesitation to equally benefit all American citizens.
[1] Juliet Eilperin and Dino Grandoni, In Trump’s last days, a spree of environmental rollbacks, The Washington Post (January 15, 2021 at 8:47 pm), https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/01/15/trump-environmental-rollbacks/.
[2] Nadja Popovich, Livia Albeck-Ripka, and Kendra Pierre-Louis, The Trump Admission Rolled Back More Than 100 Environmental Rules. Here’s the Full List, The New York Times (updated January 20, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks-list.html.
[3] Id.
[4] Juliet Eilperin and Dino Grandoni, In Trump’s last days, a spree of environmental rollbacks, The Washington Post (January 15, 2021 at 8:47 pm), https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/01/15/trump-environmental-rollbacks/; Earthjustice Editors, We’re Defending Endangered Species from the Trump Administration’s Last-Minute Attacks, Earthjustice (January 4, 2021), https://earthjustice.org/brief/2021/were-challenging-the-trump-administrations-last-minute-attacks-on-endangered-species
[5] Id.
[6] Press Release, The White House, Paris Climate Agreement (January 20, 2021).
[7] Id.; Exec. Order No. 13990, 86 FR § 7037 (signed January 20, 2021).
[8] Id.
[9] Id.