Yes, Environmental Rollbacks Will Directly Affect You
These laws are implemented for a reason and the government removing environmental regulations will have serious consequences.
The New York Times has a list of 100 environmental rules the Trump Administration has already rolled back or is planning to eliminate. As of June 2020, Trump has removed 66 of these 100 regulations. The authors of the NY Times article have separated the environmental rules by category including air pollution and emissions, drilling and extraction, infrastructure and planning, animals, toxic substances and safety, and water pollution. There is also an “other” category.
Every regulation that the Trump Administration rolls back, under all of these categories, will be disastrous and create severe adverse effects for climate change, public health, wildlife, and the economy.
Air Pollution and Emissions
Air quality in large cities tends to be worse than in the surrounding rural areas because of direct emissions from automobiles, industries, and homes. The Trump Administration has already rolled back environmental rules that previously placed stringent requirements on tailpipe exhaust and power plant emissions.
One example of an air pollution regulation the government has now rolled back is the Obama-era fuel efficiency standards.
Obama’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards would have required the auto industry to produce vehicles averaging 55 mpg by 2025. Trump’s recent rule, replacing the CAFE standards, drops the requirement to 40 mpg. This is a massive step backward in air pollution regulation.
The Trump Administration is arguing that Trump’s new regulation will make cars cheaper and safer, but there is little data and inaccurate estimations used to support these claims. However, these standards will cause drivers to use over 80 billion more gallons of gas over the lifetime of the vehicles built with these guidelines. Increased vehicle combustion will pump billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, exacerbating the climate crisis.
Repealing the CAFE standards will also cause an additional 1,000 premature deaths from the increase in toxic air pollutants.
The government has revoked 19 emissions-related regulations so far, with 8 more in progress.
Drilling and Extraction
Oil extraction and construction of oil or natural gas pipelines are the dominant issues within this category. Fracking, using a highly pressurized mixture of water, sand, and chemicals to drill into rocks below the Earth’s surface to release gas, is extremely controversial. The process wastes vast amounts of water, potentially creates earthquakes, and promotes the use of dirty fossil fuel energy.
Unfortunately, the Trump Administration has removed rules restricting fracking on federal lands which will continue to increase the risk of groundwater, soil, and the air becoming contaminated with the toxic chemicals from the fracking mixture.
The construction of pipelines is also very dangerous and can spell disaster for the surrounding communities. There are hardly any regulations on this industry and the government now no longer requires greenhouse gas emission considerations in the reviewing of recent pipeline projects. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is responsible for this review but can now ignore environmental consequences even if FERC is aware of adverse impacts.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) analyzed oil and gas pipeline statistics to expose how unsafe and damaging these projects are. These numbers will continue to skyrocket with more environmental rollbacks.
As of 2019, pipelines have been responsible for over 5,500 incidents including 600 injuries, 125 fatalities, 800 fires, 300 explosions, 30,000 people being forced to evacuate their homes, and $4 billion in damages, in the United States.
There have been 12 drilling and extracting rollbacks, with 8 in the works.
Infrastructure and Planning
Climate change will bring disaster onto built infrastructure. Under President Obama, many coastal cities had begun various projects with the goal of adapting to sea-level rise. Some examples of adaptation strategies include building sea walls to reduce wave energy, flood-proofing buildings, and restoring wetlands to create a buffer region. This infrastructure would save lives and billions of dollars in damages.
Now, Trump has eliminated funding for climate change adaptation initiatives. The government rescinding this money is putting coastal cities and residents at a massive disadvantage in the face of climate change.
With sea-level rise, increasing rates of natural disasters, and hotter temperatures, urban sprawls will experience constant flooding and severe degradation of manmade structures.
Lives will be lost and people will get hurt without the proper infrastructure to protect them.
The government has removed 11 infrastructure and planning laws and aims to roll back 1 more.
Animals
Wildlife is just as much at risk from climate change threats as humans. The shifting of global temperatures is altering natural habitats, making it harder for some species to survive and thrive. Endangered species are particularly at risk of extinction as the number of animals within these species dwindle.
The Endangered Species Act has long protected species facing extinction. Trump weakened this act so much it has become easy to remove animals from the endangered list and he loosened protections for threatened species. Without these rules, predator and prey dynamics and overall biodiversity will suffer tremendously.
The Trump Administration has also rolled back several laws regarding fishing. Many of these rollbacks allow water to be diverted from natural ecosystems into extensive areas for farmers to fish freely.
A lack of regulation or limitations on fisheries and farmers can lead to overfishing; this would cause over-exploitation of some fish species, potentially to the point of extinction.
This means your favorite type of fish may no longer be available in the future.
So far, the government has loosened 9 of these laws, with 2 more planned.
Toxic Substances and Safety
Many chemicals currently on the market have been linked to diseases, injuries, and pollution, but remain on store shelves.
Chlorpyrifos is one such chemical. This insecticide, intended to manage pests, has been linked to several developmental disabilities in young children. Trump has weakened regulations on the pesticide, going directly against the opinions of expert scientists.
Instead of banning this chemical to protect the nation’s youth, Trump has sided with farmers who claim chlorpyrifos is “essential” for their crops.
Health and safety, industry, and hazard workers are also taking the brunt of many of these rollbacks. The Trump Administration has ended a program aimed to prevent workers from developing silicosis, a lung disease found in many employees who manufacture items using silica dust. Additionally, Trump rolled back stringent regulations on hazardous materials which could have reduced the risk of chemical explosions and fires.
6 toxic substances and safety rules have been ended or loosened, with 2 more to go.
Water Pollution
Power plants, industries, and sewage treatment plants pollute waterways, making the water undrinkable and hurting natural aquatic habitats.
Under the Obama Administration, the government regulated pollution for tributaries and wetlands to prevent polluters from discharging chemicals and waste into the water. Trump has now removed these dumping limits, allowing for the discharge of more harmful substances into bodies of water.
The government has revoked rules that restricted coal companies from freely throwing debris into water sources and Trump refused to implement regulations that would mitigate pollution from sewage plants.
Everybody needs clean water to survive, but the United States could face serious water contamination issues and a huge decline in water quality if the Trump Administration continues to scale back environmental regulations.
There have been 4 water-related rollbacks and there are 7 more on the list.
These environmental rollbacks are deplorable and will have terrible long-term impacts. The Trump Administration is endangering the public, animals, and economy by removing these environmental laws.
