By Donovan McNeal, Howard University News Service
Guest Column
Climate experts and organizations are concerned for the environment and the effect on the public with the flurry of executive orders from President Donald Trump during his second term.
Among these is a second withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, an international treaty with the goal of decreasing the global average temperature to well below two degrees Celsius. President Trump withdrew the U.S. from this same agreement in his previous term. The U.S., Iran, Libya and Yemen are the only four countries not aligned with this goal.
Ben Jealous, president of the Sierra Club, one of the largest grassroot environmental organizations in the nation, expressed his displeasure with the withdrawal. As the largest historic emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG), the United States has a moral obligation to assist in relieving the climate crisis, he said.
“Donald Trump’s failure to even begin to understand the magnitude of this moment is as clueless as it is cruel,” Jealous said in a statement. “Withdrawal from this agreement is nothing more than a symbol of his selfish and empty acts that only emboldens other nations who see yet another opportunity to lead where we refuse to.”
According to the World Resources Institute, the top three GHG emitters are China, the U.S. and India. They contribute to 42.6 percent of total global emissions, while the bottom 100 countries account for 2.9 percent.
In addition to this withdrawal, Trump’s other executive orders include declaring America in an “energy emergency,” which is aimed at increasing the production of fossil fuels in place of renewable sources, and a rollback on federal vehicle emission standards, which reverses the Biden administration’s order to produce more energy-efficient and clean vehicles.
Jealous condemned the notion of an energy emergency when the U.S. is the largest producer of oil and gas in the world.
“Donald Trump believes we are in such a dire energy emergency that he wants us to stop producing affordable clean energy and force dated and wasted technology,” he said. “The truth is, the only emergency he is focused on is repaying the corporate polluter executives for donating to his campaign.”
Jealous added that the American people will bear the brunt of higher energy bills. “If he truly wants to help the American people, he would keep investing in the clean energy solutions that are putting our communities back to work and lowering our utility bills, not deepening our costly reliance on dirty and expensive fossil fuels.”
Costs for renewable technologies have decreased annually since 2020, according to a study by the International Renewable Energy Agency. Concentrating solar power fell by 26 percent, onshore wind by 13 percent, offshore wind by nine percent and solar PC by seven percent. Additionally, the agency predicts that new renewable projects will save emerging economies up to $156 billion over their lifespans.
Despite this positive trend, President Trump has also signed an executive order to halt development of offshore wind projects in the U.S. The Sierra Club stated that this pull away from the offshore wind sector will cancel 77,000 jobs created during the Biden Administration.
Similarly to Jealous, Abigail Dillen, president of the environmental law organization Earthjustice, said the president’s executive orders did not surprise her organization and that they don’t reflect the best interests of the American people.
“The president’s job is to protect the people, not corporate interests,” Dillen said in a statement. The flurry of executive orders today will increase industry profits, but don’t lower costs for people or dig us out of the many crises we face as a country.”
“We will keep fighting in court to ensure we all have the protections we need and deserve.”
Dillen also commented on the Trump administration’s decision to disband the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, established by President Biden in his Executive Order 14008, “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.” The council is designed to increase the federal government’s efforts to address environmental inequality for issues such as pollution and exposure to toxic pollutants in overburdened communities, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“This means more cancer clusters, more asthma attacks, bigger hospital bills and, ultimately, more deaths among Americans,” Dillen said. “Access to clean air, water and energy should not depend on your ZIP code, race or income.”
“By rolling back efforts to address historic underinvestment and overburden in communities of color and low-income communities, President Trump is putting good health and prosperity out of reach for millions of people.”
Dillen made a vow that Earthjustice will keep fighting with these affected communities “who continue to demand justice.”
Amid the fast progression of these executive orders, Mustafa Santiago Ali, the executive vice president of the National Wildlife Federation, said it is also the job of the states as well as the federal government to protect and uphold the work of environmental justice.
Ali provided the example of the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, where seven people died and hazardous toxins entered the community two years ago in February 2023. He also referenced Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,” an 85-mile stretch along the Mississippi River that has a high concentration of industrial plants and high rates of cancer among its predominantly Black residents.
“We just got to make sure that safety net continues to be in existence,” Ali said, “and we got to make sure that there’s a space for vulnerable communities to be able to share about the impacts.”
Donovan McNeal covers environment and energy for HUNewsService.com.