Welcome to our weekly “Trumptastrophe” series that serves to remind us of the destructive policies, decisions, and actions we encountered during the Trump presidency and the threats that he and others in the MAGA movement still pose – and to keep those moments clear in our memory as we fight to defeat Republican extremists during the upcoming elections.
This week’s Trumptastrophe focuses on former President Trump’s efforts to dismantle state and federal government environmental regulations that would curb climate change. It also highlights the plans outlined in Project 2025 that would further jeopardize our climate if Trump is reelected.
On Sept. 13, 2019, the Trump administration announced plans to open the environmentally sensitive Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and gas exploration, picking what the Washington Post called “the most aggressive development option for an area long closed to drilling.”
A few days later, Trump announced on Twitter that the administration was revoking a federal waiver that allows California to set stricter emissions standards for cars than the national standard, which NPR called part of “a broader effort by the White House to roll back efforts to combat climate change.”
Both moves reflected the Trump administration’s dismissive attitude toward climate change and its impacts on human health and the environment. Both were denounced by environmental advocates as irresponsible actions that would worsen the effects of climate change. Earlier in the year, scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service charged that the environmental impact statement drafted by the Bureau of Land Management in support of ANWR drilling had ignored and downplayed scientific evidence about climate change.
California’s emission rules, which had been adopted by other states, were at the center of an agreement the state struck with automakers to continue to lower emissions even if the Trump administration weakened national standards. In response to that agreement, Trump’s Justice Department launched an anti-trust investigation, which it eventually dropped.
California and 22 other states challenged Trump’s emissions action in court. After voters turned Trump out of office, President Joe Biden’s administration reversed Trump’s effort to override California vehicle emissions standards. And earlier this year, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit rejected an attempt by Texas, Alabama, Ohio, and other Republican-led states to revoke California’s ability to set stricter standards.
The Biden administration also paused, suspended, and then canceled the oil and gas leases in ANWR that were granted by the Trump administration.
Trump’s two anti-environment actions in September 2019 are a reminder that he and the right-wing political infrastructure that is working to put him back in power are deeply invested in denying the reality of climate change, its causes, and its harmful impacts.
One of the significant dangers in the Project 2025 policy agenda prepared by former Trump administration officials and other MAGA activists is its call for a “whole-of-government unwinding” of what it calls “the Biden Administration’s climate fanaticism.” As the New York Times noted, “[t]he plan calls for shredding regulations to curb greenhouse gas pollution from cars, oil and gas wells and power plants, dismantling almost every clean energy program in the federal government and boosting the production of fossil fuels.”
Project 2025 “could decimate the federal government’s climate work, stymie the transition to clean energy and shift agencies toward nurturing the fossil fuel industry rather than regulating it,” Politico concluded.
Project 2025’s policy agenda is filled with anti-environmental propaganda as well as plans to undermine environmental protection in favor of industry-friendly policies. In its foreword, Heritage Foundation’s MAGA-minded President Kevin Roberts dismisses environmentalism as a “pseudo-religion meant to baptize liberals’ ruthless pursuit of absolute power in the holy water of environmental virtue.” Roberts’ language mimics anti-environmental rhetoric deployed over the years by fossil-fuel-funded Christian-right political groups denouncing the environmental movement as a “Green Dragon” and a “false religion.”
Taken together, Trump’s actions as president, Project 2025’s plans for a future Trump administration, and Trump’s promise to “drill, baby, drill!” are a huge red flag about the enormous stakes in this election for Americans and for every person on the planet.
These are just some of the reasons we need YOU in this fight. So, find your favorite way to unwind after reading through this week’s recap, and then make a plan for how you will fight back this week, this month, this election cycle.
