GUTTING ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Since taking office in January 2017, President Trump has used executive orders to weaken or to block 83 environmental rules. The rules involve air pollution, drilling and extraction of fossil fuels, toxic substances, and water pollution. Action on 49 orders has been completed. The others are pending.
Enacted by Congress, the Administrative Act of 1946 established the process by which the president and federal agencies can propose and enact regulations. If these are upheld following a period of public comment and judicial review, the regulations take effect. The problem of review is complicated by the complexity of issues, in which thousands of pages of documents may need to be analyzed. Lawsuits opposing regulations may delay their enactment for months or years.
Examples of executive orders that affect the environment from the inception of the Trump Administration:
› In March 2017, Trump signed an executive order revoking a requirement for oil and gas drillers to monitor and report methane emissions. Methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. The rule had been jointly worked out by U.S. and Canadian officials during President Obama’s administration. A U.S. Court of Appeals subsequently blocked this action.
› In May 2018, the Federal Highway Administration repealed a requirement that state and regional authorities monitor tail-pipe emissions from vehicles traveling on federal highways. Vehicular exhausts comprise 29% of greenhouse-gas emissions.
› A proposed change in fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light trucks illustrates the controversies that may surround an executive order. In August 2018, the EPA and U.S. Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed freezing fuel efficiency and emission standards for carbon dioxide at the year 2020 level through the year 2026. Vehicles would burn more fuel and release more greenhouse gases if the standards were frozen. The rule change would also ban California and 12 other states from using stricter standards. In June 2019, 17 auto manufacturers expressed their support for maintaining the current standards. The companies had already factored tougher standards into their plans for vehicle production in the years ahead. Environmental groups also oppose the softer standards.
› The Trump administration continues to fight a ban on chlorpyrifos (CP), a controversial, highly toxic pesticide. The chemical had been banned by the EPA during the Obama administration. In March 2017, then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt ordered revocation of the ban. After lengthy review, in August 2018, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a ban on CP use within 60 days. The issue has been hung up in judicial hearings, while evidence is presented by environmental and farm-worker organizations that CP is dangerous to human health.
› In March, the president used an executive order to approve the controversial Keystone Pipeline to transport oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and to limit means by which states could block the construction. Opposition to the pipeline had been widespread and included Indian tribes who protested the pipeline’s crossing of sacred lands.
In May, an executive order gave approval to summertime use of gasoline containing 15 per cent ethanol, which increases smog during hot weather.
Judicial review of executive actions is a vital component of the Administrative Act of 1946. This safeguard could eventually be diluted to the point of irrelevance, if federal courts are packed with judges subservient to the politics of a president.
To date, actions by the president to revoke or to weaken environmental regulations reflect the desires of fossil-fuel, chemical and agribusiness industries at the expense of the public’s health and safety. Without the resistance of environmental and public health groups along with several state governments, environmental protections would be systematically dismantled.