Environmental organizations are preparing to challenge in court new Trumpian policies designed to dismantle environmental regulations and boost the fossil industry. Environmental advocates said they are determined to defend achievements, starting with the confirmation of funds allocated in the package bill passed by Biden, the Inflation Reduction Act, created with the goal of reducing the federal government’s budget deficit by investing in domestic energy production to promote clean energy. Currently, a federal judge has issued an injunction to block the freeze on federal funding ordered by the Trump Administration, however, despite this decision, the Administration continues to withhold funds for climate programs and this poses serious obstacles to decarbonizing the country’s economy.
Notably since Trump took office as U.S. president, he has signed several executive actions, including an order nullifying actions taken by President Joe Biden in the final weeks of his term to ban all future offshore oil and natural gas drilling on America’s eastern and western coasts, in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and in the Bering Sea of northern Alaska. Environmental groups argue, however, that these operations not only destroy the environment by damaging it irreparably but, the use of the derived substances increases the pollution and climate damage caused by harmful fumes from fossil fuels leaking into the environment in increasingly massive quantities that are dangerous to human and planetary health.
According to Sam Sankar, senior vice president of Earthjustice, the largest U.S. public interest environmental law firm, “Trump’s new law is an attempt to fulfill his campaign promise to increase fossil fuel production.”
Environmental law experts suggest that Trump also aims to increase the amount of federal land available for drilling. However, according to Joanne Spalding, director of the environmental law program at the Sierra Club, the oldest and largest U.S. environmental organization founded in 1892 in San Francisco, many communities in Florida and California would like to see drilling activities decrease.
“People in Florida are against land drilling. People in California are against drilling,” said Spalding, who added, ”there are many places where people are not interested in having that activity on their coasts.”
Brett Hartl, director of government affairs at the Center for Biological Diversity also points out that “the move by the Office of Management and Budget Office to suspend federal financial aid programs could be a warning sign for federal agencies conducting environmental work that does not align with Trump’s agenda.” “Right now, the biggest threat to the environment is Trump’s attempt to simply dismantle the federal government,” he added.
