Environmental groups prepare to fight a new Trump administration

Environmental groups are gearing up to fight the incoming Trump administration, which they expect to make quick and sweeping changes to policies on energy, protected land and more.

Environmental groups are gearing up to push back against the incoming Trump administration, which they expect to make sweeping policy changes more quickly than was seen when Donald Trump took office in 2017.

Based on Trump’s previous actions as president and statements made during the recent campaign, experts, lawyers and advocates offered several predictions for his agenda in office. They expect him to focus on expanding oil and gas drilling, reducing the acreage of preserved federal land and repealing or paring back two of President Joe Biden’s signature legislative accomplishments: the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.

Environmentalists see the Cabinet picks Trump has announced so far as early steps toward that agenda — people who agree with the goal to “drill, drill, drill” on day one, as Trump put it to Fox News host Sean Hannity in December. Already, Trump has named North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who has called for increases to domestic oil production, as his choice for secretary of the interior, and oil industry CEO Chris Wright as his desired energy secretary.

The first Trump administration took at least 74 actions seen as weakening environmental policy, according to a tracker from the nonpartisan Brookings Institution. The number could be higher in the upcoming term, given Trump’s promises to vastly change the regulatory landscape.

“I think the thing that we’re preparing for more is sort of the potential aggressiveness and disregard for the rule of law,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director for the Center for Biological Diversity. He added that his group will also watch for changes or processes “that are just simply, plainly illegal.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/environmental-groups-prepare-fight-trump-rcna181054

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