by Rona Fried & Annette McGee Rasch
There’s been lots of news coverage of Trump’s endless list of unqualified, corrupt nominees (18 billionaires!) but, as usual, not a peep about his cabinet picks for our key environmental agencies: the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Interior, Department of Energy and Department of Agriculture.
Trump’s candidates are a who’s who of the oil industry – they’ll be in charge of our public health, public lands, and whether we transition to clean energy.
During his first term Trump rolled back over 100 environmental rules. His administration was the most anti-climate, anti-wildlife, anti-public health administration our nation has ever endured. The degree of damage done to clean air, clean water and public lands protections was stunning.
Biden reversed most of what Trump did, but now Trump has a fresh crop of sycophants. His cabinet is cartoonishly corrupt. It would be laughable, were the situation not so dire.
Over 50,000 scientists have called on Congress to defend against Trump’s anti-science actions.
They sent a petition to every member of Congress, asking them to “defend the science and scientists that keep Americans safe.” Read more.
Since Trump was elected in November, scientists have scrambled to protect climate data from his administration’s wrecking ball. They’ve saved everything from satellite data on global temperatures to ocean measurements of sea-level rise. During his first administration, climate change information was altered or deleted from federal government websites.
Last year, Planet Earth crossed the threshold scientists have long warned about – we surpassed 1.5ºC of temperature rise. Incredibly, greenhouse gases are rising faster than ever right now. And still Trump calls climate change a hoax and promises to drill more than ever, everywhere.
Let’s take a quick look at Trump’s Environmental Nominees:
Lee Zeldin, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): is completely unqualified for the job. His only qualification is loyalty to Trump and a desire to eliminate environmental protections to help industry. A former Congressman, he received over $400,000 from Big Oil and served on Trump’s impeachment defense team.
While in Congress, Zeldin voted against environmental bills 85% of the time – receiving one of the lowest ratings (14%) from the League of Conservation Voters. He voted against funding to clean up toxic brownfields and even replacing lead pipes in homes.
He proudly told Fox “News” that as head of EPA he’ll dial back “left-wing” rules on water protection, agricultural emissions, industrial pollution etc to “unleash economic prosperity.” (what’s prosperity if we’re all sick or dead?!)
Zeldin voted NO on Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (which contains massive investments in renewable energy) and he supports Trump pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement. He’s expected to loosen regulations that prevent pollution from meatpacking plants, chemicals, agriculture, power plants, and oil/gas. He’ll reverse Biden’s limits on vehicle emissions to get rid of electric cars.
Chris Wright, Department of Energy (DOE): has never worked in government or held any public office, but he is CEO of Liberty Energy, an oil/ fracking corporation. Say goodbye to Biden’s incredible work under the Inflation Reduction Act – we can rely on Wright to put clean energy back in the closet. What does he think about climate change? It’s “the climate religion” and the “north star of leftism.”
Doug Burgum, Department of Interior (DOI): will oversee our public lands and waters, wildlife and endangered species, and the government’s relationship with native tribes. Environmental groups have been fighting for decades to get oil, gas and coal mining off our public lands and made progress under Biden.
As governor of North Dakota, he raked in at least $610,000 in campaign contributions from big oil.
Remember the infamous Mar-a-Lago meeting where Trump agreed to overturn dozens of environmental rules in exchange for $1 billion in fossil campaign contributions? Burgum arranged that meeting.
Trump and his cabal of corporate lobbyists and oil executives have long plotted to carve up America’s public lands or turn them back to the states. The goal is to auction or sell them off, or at least fast-track drilling everywhere.
Many of these shameful plans are spelled out in Project 2025, which (among other things) is a deregulatory agenda that strips our rights to clean air, water and a healthy planet.
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture (USDA): has no experience in farm policy, but she’s qualified as an author of Project 2025 and because she questions if carbon dioxide is a pollutant. The USDA governs what’s allowed in Organic agriculture and is in charge of our National Forests.
Shaun Duffy, Department of Transportation (DOT): another fossil ally, he won’t be adding to the hundreds of thousands of electric vehicle charging stations built under Biden, and he won’t use green materials that can make our country more resilient from storms.
Immediately after his confirmation, he directed staff to begin unraveling Biden’s historic clean car pollution standards.
Read more:
‘Oil Industry Wins’ as Trump Transportation Chief Targets Biden Clean Car Rules
Russell Vought, Office of Management and Budget (OMB): as a lead Project 2025 author, he’ll serve at the hub of Trump’s administration. OMB oversees the federal budget, federal rulemaking and the federal workforce.
This super dangerous man said, for example, that he wants EPA bureaucrats to be “viewed as villains. We want their funding shut down so they can’t do rules against our energy industry. We want to put them in trauma.” (2023 Center for Renewing America speech). He wants to remove any consideration of climate in government.
Read more:
Vought Has Drastic Plans to Reshape America
What’s happening to our nation is hard to watch. The ‘land of the free’ is on its way to becoming a fascist authoritarian regime – a corporatocracy on steroids. So what shall we do now? One thing is sure – we’d best not stay silent.
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Rona Fried, Ph.D. is CEO of SustainableBusiness.com. Annette Rasch runs our Green Dream Jobs service.
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