From RefuseFascism.org

The Trump/Pence Regime on Environment

Poster Four in a series of seven posters

Updated August 17, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

These hard hitting posters are an indictment of what the Trump/Pence regime has done and is doing. They concentrate the facts of the regime’s efforts to consolidate fascism. They drive home why, in the interests of humanity, the Trump/Pence Regime “Must GO!”. People are being led by mass media to think “Trump really hasn’t been able to accomplish anything yet.” People need a much fuller grasp of the aims of this regime, and the direction it is pushing in.

Download these PDF Posters, print, and take them to protests.

 

The Earth and the species who inhabit it—including humanity—should sustain life and not be despoiled by ignorance, greed, and the disregard of science.

The Trump/Pence Regime on Environment:

What they have done

  • Withdrew the U.S. from the Paris international climate agreement on greenhouse gas emissions.
  • The regime released a list of 860 environmental rules it’s reviewing or withdrawing—including drinking water standards for radon and lead levels, water quality standards on Indian reservations, ozone and methane emission limits, and air-quality standards for hazardous chemicals. Just ten of those standards save more than 10,000 lives and prevent 300,000 cases of illness and injury each year.
  • Contrary to scientific consensus, EPA head Scott Pruitt denied on national TV that carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is the main cause of global warming.
  • Approved and expedited construction of the Dakota Access and Keystone XL oil pipelines, which will increase fossil fuel use and emissions and accelerate global warming.
  • Attempted to block rules restricting leaks of methane, an even more harmful greenhouse gas than CO2, from landfills and from oil and gas wells.
  • Approved the use of chlorpyrifos, a widely used pesticide shown to be harmful to children’s brains and nervous systems.
  • Rescinded Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which put restrictions on carbon emissions from new and existing power plants.
  • In a move lauded by the NRA, Trump’s interior secretary approved the use of lead ammunition on federal lands and waters.

What they said they will do

  • EPA head Scott Pruitt attacks climate science and the reality and danger of climate change and plans to dismiss 38 scientists from the EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors.
  • In the name of doing an “update” to “reflect the agency’s new direction,” the EPA website has removed “Climate Change” as a topic from its menu of “Environmental Topics” and begun making content related to climate change unavailable.
  • The Trump/Pence budget would slash the EPA budget by more than 30 percent and eliminate 3,200 jobs at the agency.
  • Among the EPA programs targeted to be gutted or eliminated is “environmental justice,” which was supposed to help minority and other disadvantaged communities fight industrial pollution.
  • Filed a plan to end rules protecting more than half the country’s streams and waterways—which flow into rivers, lakes, and wetlands—from pollution, which could end drinking water safeguards for one in three people in the U.S.
  • Announced plans to roll back auto fuel efficiency standards and regulations restricting vehicle emissions.
  • Trump instructed his interior secretary to review 40 national monuments to see if the size of land set aside for protection from development should be reduced.
  • A Trump order for a review of bans on offshore oil drilling in parts of the Arctic and Pacific and Atlantic oceans points to renewed expansion of such drilling.
  • Trump has said the U.S. environmental regulations are “out of control,” and has removed protections of certain species, like the Yellowstone grizzly bear, and ordered reviews of rules protecting other endangered species, like the greater sage-grouse.
  • Although studies say the construction of Trump’s border wall will threaten more than 100 species of animals and plants, Trump claims no environmental review is necessary to put up the wall and plans to invoke “national security” to bypass it.
  • The Bureau of Land Management proposed repealing rules on fracking on federal and Native American tribal lands that put some requirements on oil and gas companies, like safety measures on toxic chemicals used in fracking.
  • The Department of Treasury says they will turn from promoting renewable energy in “developing” countries to supporting more coal-fired power plants and other fossil fuel projects.

 

 

       

 

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