As Trump Tries to Defend Environmental Record, Report by Chair Grijalva Assesses Environmental Damage Through Budget Cuts & Policy Giveaways
Washington, D.C. – Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released a report today revealing the extent of the Trump administration’s environmental destruction. The report – which comes shortly after President Trump concluded a speech on his environmental record that avoided any mention of climate change – outlines the administration’s broad range of regulatory rollbacks, industry giveaways and funding cuts since taking office.
The report, titled President Trump is Attacking Our Natural Resources, is available at http://bit.ly/2G1UetA. It outlines the administration’s indefensible records on a broad range of issues:
- Water projects across the western United States
- Oceans
- Wildlife and endangered species
- Public lands
- Fossil fuel industry giveaways
“Our environment and our climate are being destroyed by the same companies the president considers his closest allies,” Grijalva said today. “He’s signing away our air, our water and our public resources to fossil fuel companies and then telling us how important it is for government to protect big business. The truth is in this report: Trump’s environmental record is too embarrassing for him to honestly discuss with the American people.”
Among other highlights, the report looks into conflicts of interest that Interior Secretary David Bernhardt brought with him to Trump’s cabinet; underscores the many anti-environment executive orders the president has signed since taking office; charts the timelines of bedrock environmental standards from before Trump office to where they are today; and highlights the administration’s enormous giveaways to fossil fuel companies.
The report, while not a comprehensive look at Trump’s entire environmental record, goes beyond the Interior Department to put issues like coal mining in context. The report notes, for instance, “The Environmental Protection Agency stopped an Obama initiative to place new financial assurance requirements on hardrock mining companies under Superfund law. Trump’s move puts taxpayers on the hook for cleaning up more abandoned mine sites.”
While not noted in today’s report, Trump’s failure to discuss climate change is especially troubling in light of recent analysis showing the need to cut global emissions in half by 2030 to avoid heat waves “beyond the threshold of human survivability.”
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