Read on Twitter
@realDonaldTrump wants to give a speech on his "environmental accomplishments"? Sure thing. Let's do this. #BidenCoalition @United4Joe #ClimateCrisis
@realDonaldTrump is boasting about clean air. This is correct. We do have the cleanest air we've had, but that's not thanks to him. In fact, Trump has been attacking environmental protections, removing over 74 major environmental regulatory rollbacks according to @BrookingsInst.
Bragging about the wall is not a great thing in this context. The wall will do nothing for environmental protection and in fact creates serious environmental harm for endangered species near the border.
Trump is bragging about the moratorium on offshore drilling. Keep in mind he rolled back safety regs for offshore drilling. https://www.npr.org/2019/05/03/720008093/trump-administration-moves-to-roll-back-offshore-drilling-safety-regulations
He has rolled back regulations related to wetlands protections and has in general been giving gifts after gifts to the oil and gas industry. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-climate-regulations-factbox/factbox-u-s-oil-and-gas-regulatory-rollbacks-under-trump-idUSKCN1VJ2BP
In 2017 Trump installed the arguably most openly corrupt cabinet appointee in recent memory. Scott Pruitt was corrupt enough that his tenure at EPA prompted a 2018 academic paper about how over the to the situation was: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/01052018/trump-epa-regulatory-capture-industry-influence-climate-pruitt-compared-reagan-gorsuch-journal-public-health
In 2017, one of the first things the administration did was reverse offshore drilling bans in the Arctic and Atlantic Ocean. Arctic ecosystems are remarkably sensitive and major oil spills do huge amounts of damage.
That plan had to be blocked by courts.
Related to this, the Trump administration has been attempting to strip away any support for animals, especially endangered species.
Related to this, the Trump administration has been attempting to strip away any support for animals, especially endangered species.
The Trump admin has gone after protections for birds under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. https://www.audubon.org/news/trump-administration-continues-effort-strip-away-bird-protections
The Trump admin has attacked the endangered species act, threatening our nation's wildlife, many with extinction. https://www.nrdc.org/media/2020/200731
@realDonaldTrump really hates wolves and bears and has pushed rule changes allowing hunters to kill them in their dens. They have pushed for endangered species protections to be removed from wolves in the lower 48. https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-rollback-allows-hunters-to-kill-bears-and-wolves-in-their-dens-2646114404.html
Trump is trying to roll back the protections of the Tongass National Forest, which impacts not only one of the most important carbon sinks and biodiversity centers within the United States but also badly impacts the lives of the Tlingit. #IndigenousLivesMatter
@realDonaldTrump has removed restrictions on hunting trophies, which complicates problems around enforcing against wildlife trafficking.
He's opened up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling for fossil fuels.
To switch over to public health:
Trumps admin has been trying to reduce the regulation and in turn the safety of the air you breathe, the water you drink, and the food you eat.
Trumps admin has been trying to reduce the regulation and in turn the safety of the air you breathe, the water you drink, and the food you eat.
Trumps admin tried to avoid regulating lead paint and had to be ordered to do so by a court.
His administration tried to block the release of reports about the dangers of PFAS and PFOA, which are toxic substances. The study indicated they were dangerous at lower quantities than what is currently regulated,
Trump is literally the worst president of the last forty years on climate change. He withdrew us from the Paris Climate Agreement. He rolled back the clean power plan. He attacked the energy star program. He gave the fossil fuel industry openings to fill key agency positions.
His admin has tried to silence climate scientists across the government. It has tried to bury reports (the national climate assessment) and stopped others from reaching the public. https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/02/03/trump-climate-change-environment-policy
It's actively tried to run scientists out of the government that provided information it doesn't like. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/17/whistleblowers-scientists-climate-crisis-trump-administration
Hell, right at the beginning of the administration they wanted a list of everyone at DOE who had been involved on climate projects. This was a huge controversy for people in the climate and energy community and scary for people who work in government. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/12/09/trump-transition-team-for-energy-department-seeks-names-of-employees-involved-in-climate-meetings/
As part of that effort, according to an interview from @frontlinepbs, Trump had asked Myron Ebell for personnel to appoint in order to help eliminate the EPA. @altUSEPA can likely tell you about that.
Here's a good rundown of their progress on the regulatory front. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html
One prime example: loosening regulations for coal plants to release lead, selenium, and arsenic into the waterways of approximately 1.1 million people. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/09/trump-admin-eases-obama-era-rules-limiting-toxic-coal-waste.html
He's been fighting against improving air quality standards, especially around fine particulate matter. Air pollution has been linked to higher rates of death from #COVID19 https://insideclimatenews.org/news/14042020/air-pollution-epa-covid-pm2.5-secret-science-rule-health-fuel-standard-climate-change
His attacks on NEPA are actually nuts. You NEED to include climate change as consideration for government decisions, particularly in relation to infrastructure. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09012020/trump-nepa-environmental-review-changes-climate-change-infrastructure-pipelines
His claims about being the best president on the environment is just empirically wrong. Every single president since Nixon has been better than him on this topic, and that includes Reagan of all people. (Reagan signed the Montreal Protocol which is a BFD).
None of this had to happen. There are TONS of Republican environmentalists. He just didn't give them any power. He gave power to people in polluting industries and could care less about the environment and particularly animals.
He does, to give credit, on occasion like today give orders when they are politically useful to provide some environmental protections, but as this thread shows, they are the exception rather then the rule.
His claim that @JoeBiden would make the environment dirtier is just another lie. The #BidenHarris ticket is running on one of the boldest environmental platforms ever. I know. I supported @DNCClimate and others to convince them and the rest of the party to go bold on climate.
@KamalaHarris was one of the original supporters of the #GreenNewDeal in the senate and has historically been a climate hawk. @RL_Miller knows her record better than I do.
The @GOP doesn't even have a real climate platform to think of. Trump doesn't care if he poisons your drinking water if it makes his buddies a profit and keeps him in power. His move today, while welcome, is just a political move to try to improve his changes in FL, GA and NC.
Ultimately Donald Trump is the worst president on the environment that I know of since Grover Cleveland. I'm not even going further back then that because I want to avoid making any big historical errors.
Understand that his speech today is an attempt to cover up for the fact that his administration has been trying to kill environmental protection, stop us from stopping the #climatecrisis, and kill wolf puppies while they sleep. Thread
You know what. Fuck it. Not finished.
@LFFriedman and Clair O'Neil ran this great story just breaking down some of the regulatory capture within the Trump admin on environmental policy. If Trump cared about the environment, he wouldn't just cart blanche hand the hens to the foxes. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/14/climate/fossil-fuel-industry-environmental-policy.html
Trump has tried to stop the regulation of methane, a key greenhouse gas.
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-withdraws-information-request-oil-and-gas-industry
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-withdraws-information-request-oil-and-gas-industry
One of his key climate advisers, wasn't even a climate scientist! It was William Happer, a physicist who was kicked out of the Department of Energy in 93.
The admin went after efforts to promote energy efficiency including going after energy-efficient light bulbs and weakening fuel emission standards for cars and trucks,
Their efforts to sidestep the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal protocol (the one that was kicked off by Reagan), could cost the United States 30,000 new jobs and billions of dollars in exports. Not even congressional republicans are ok with that. https://www.rollcall.com/2019/05/13/trump-drags-feet-on-climate-treaty-and-republicans-arent-happy/
Ok, basically at this point, you hopefully get it. The Trump admin is awful on this issue. Vote #BidenHarris and lets go save the planet after we put this dumpster fire out.
