Olivia Vest
Managing Editor
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) saw many changes as of Tuesday, March 28. In accordance with President Donald Trump’s campaign promises, he signed into law an executive order to greatly deregulate environmental restrictions.
According to Trump, the order will increase the American coal and oil industries as well as reduce governmental spending.
“My action today is latest in steps to grow American jobs,” Trump said following the executive order signing. According to CNN, he continued on to say that the order would be “ending the theft of prosperity” for the American people.”
The order, entitled “Presidential Order on Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth” does little to increase or protect ongoing environmental regulations. According to the first section, the EPA must “promote clean and safe development” of U.S. energy resources, while “avoiding regulatory burdens” that “unnecessarily” hinder the development of energy industries.
According to a senior spokesperson for the Trump administration, Trump’s order will allow the government to “serve the environment and increase energy independence” simultaneously.
“The previous administration devalued workers by their policies,” the same spokesperson said. “We are saying we can do both. We can protect the environment and provide people with work.”
Though statements made by the Trump administration indicate that a certain level of environmental protection will be maintained, many environmentalists are concerned about the role the United States will play in the multi-nation Paris agreement, a plan that could reduce climate change. The 2015 deal, which involved representatives from 195 nations, planned to limit the atmospheric temperature from rising two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
Because of former President Barack Obama’s creation of the Clean Power Plan (which would have reduced American emissions by 26 percent by 2025), the United States would have played a large role in reducing climate change in accordance with the Paris agreement. As of a ceremony this March, Trump ordered the EPA to begin revising and withdrawing the Clean Power Plan.
According to Butler sophomore Brian Hardin, these changes have made it difficult to believe that Trump will improve the environment at all.
“The regulations Donald Trump is eliminating will be detrimental to the planet,” Hardin said. “Trump has chosen to bring back a handful of jobs that will be reduced in 10 years anyway instead of tackling the global threat of climate change.”
In statements released on Twitter, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (D) condemned the deregulations.
“President Trump’s anti-environmental executive orders are a disaster,” Sanders said. “They are a threat to the future of this country, and to the future of the world.”
Despite the backlash, coal industry workers and its supporters have praised the order. A statement released on the website for West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R) applauds the changes.
“Today, President Trump kept his promise to roll back one of the most harmful acts of overreach by the Obama administration—the so-called Clean Power Plan,” Capito said. “If fully implemented, the Clean Power Plan would have completely decimated West Virginia’s vital coal industry while having no meaningful climate impact.”
Though the executive order garnered a variety of response, the United States and global environment will see many changes in upcoming months.
