Trump policies could have an impact on the environment long after leaving their duties, say some experts

Some of the policies promulgated under the Trump administration will have lasting impacts on the environment far after the current president has left his duties, experts in environmental policy have told ABC News.

President Donald Trump has promulgated a number of policies that could potentially affect the environment and deactivate the country’s ability to reach a zero emission economy since their entry into office, these experts said.

The decrees include a Declaration of a national energy emergencyExpand mining and coal use in the United States and remove the United States Paris Agreement For the second time.

Politicians arise from the idea of ​​American independence or “Put America first“The President’s orders declare.

“The United States must increase its economy and maintain jobs for its citizens while playing a leadership role in global efforts to protect the environment,” Trump wrote in an executive decree of the day of the inauguration entitled “Put America first in international environmental agreements”.

The order has continued: “In recent years, the United States has ceased to join international agreements and initiatives which do not reflect the values ​​of our country or our contributions to the pursuit of economic and environmental objectives”.

On March 6The White House has announced that deregulation efforts had saved more than $ 180 billion, or about $ 2,100 per family of four, interrupting the regulations offered by the Biden era.

“After taking office, President Trump immediately blocked these proposed rules and launched an aggressive deregulation program that requires substantial reductions in existing regulations for each new agency rule,” said the White House. “President Trump undertakes to reduce the insane administrative formalities that will reduce costs, lead to higher growth and introduce America into his golden age.”

Some of these actions will be difficult to see by the conclusion, in particular those which focus on the increase in production and the use of fossil fuels, because the rest of the world seeks to convert their savings to function on clean energy, experts said in ABC News.

However, the campaigns against wind, energy, batteries, the burden of electric vehicles and energy efficiency will put the United States on a slower path to put global warming, told ABC News a professor of environmental sciences and former scientific advisor to President Barack Obama.

“It will cause enormous damage in itself,” said Holdren.

“We have the largest amount of oil and gas from all countries on earth, and we will use it,” said Trump during his inauguration speech in January. “We will lower prices, fill our strategic reserves directly upwards and export American energy from around the world. We will again be a rich nation, and it is this liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it.”

Environmental protection agency deregulation

The deregulation of the Environmental Protection Agency is one of the changes in the Trump administration which should have harmful impacts for the decades to come, told ABC News Holly Bender, program manager for the Sierra Club, a non -profit environmental organization.

On March 12, EPA announced Balaying Moves To use environmental protections and eliminate a multitude of climate change regulations, described by the EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, such as the “greatest deregulating action in American history”.

Among the 31 actions, let us quote the return of regulations on emissions on the production of coal, petroleum and gas and to reassess the results of the government which previously determine that the emissions of greenhouse gases heat the planet and constitute a threat to public health.

These actions reversed policies that have “broad public support”, such as financing the replacement of lead pipes, reducing mercury pollution in air and rolling protections for public land, said Bender.

“This is the agency where they establish standards for toxic and dangerous atmospheric pollutants, such as dioxin or mercury, for which there is no level of safe exposure,” said Bender.

THE Bipartite infrastructure law of 2021 Invested billions in the cleaning of inherited pollution, strengthening the country’s water infrastructure and increasing resources to help companies reduce toxic pollutants, emphasizing poorly served and overloaded communities.

In a statement to ABC News, the EPA said: “While the Biden EPA has tried several times to usurp the Constitution and the rule of law to impose its new green scam”, the EPA Trump is focused on the laser on obtaining results for the American people while operating within the limits of the laws adopted by the Congress. “

“We believe that the protection of human health and the environment should not be done to the detriment of job creation and the implementation of the American return,” said EPA spokesperson. “We can and will deliver the two. The EPA has not lost time to advance the directive of President Trump to deliver clean air, land and water for all Americans – while restoring common sense, responsibility and cooperative federalism to environmental policy. In locking with the order of the President, EPA also helps to unravel American work, to pursue the capital of the Capital world, and bring back American employees. “

Disassembly of the national ocean and atmospheric administration

Discounts of the endowment at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration may have a reverberation of the impacts on the way meteorologists across the country plan the weather, warned the experts who spoke in ABC.

The NOAA and the National Weather Service, which is part of the NOAA, are responsible for routine and extreme weather forecasts on a national scale – depending on the hurricanes, the tornadoes, the forest fires, the tsunamis and other potentially mortal events

But some research laboratories, regional offices and satellite operating facilities have closed following staff discounts, the agency announced in recent months.

The essential function such as satellite information, weather and its effect on the health of the airplane engine comes from these offices, said Craig McLean, former director of the NOAA research, during a press conference in March. Cups will lead to significant consequences on the accuracy of weather forecasts, maritime navigation, the fishing industry and air security

In addition to forecasts, climate adaptation will also be affected, said Holdren. The country’s ability to adapt to damage caused by more extreme heat waves, floods, drought, forest fires, hurricanes and sea level elevation could be compromised due to personnel reductions within the NOAA.

“The slowdown in these adaptation efforts will increase the damage of the extremes associated with climate change far beyond the time that Trump is in office,” said Holdren.

A Budget proposal project By the management and budget office, suggested a potential reduction of 27% – approximately 27% – in the financing of the NOAA for the financial year 2026.

It is difficult not to have enough staff in a certain number of regional forecast offices to continue operations 24/7, with positions which are generally among the 122 NWS forecast offices, 13 river forecast centers and two Tsunami warning centers, said the general organization of employees of the National Meteorological Service Richard Hirn in March.

Shots on the main scientific agencies

Thousands of positions in federal government agencies that carry out crucial scientific research have been eliminated – including EPA, NASA, Noaa, US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service – with the launch of the Ministry of Government Effectiveness, an initiative of the Trump administration to reduce federal spending and maximize government productivity.

The cuts extend widely through engineering and science and will lead to a lack of scientific advances and international competitiveness from the United States, which will also have sustainable cultural and economic impacts, Holdren said.

“It is the vital element of innovation that over the years, since the Second World War, has given the United States not only the strongest economy in the world, but the most productive agriculture, the protection of the most robust environment, the most capable army,” he said. “You cannot expect the private sector to replace these large cuts in basic research.”

Philanthropic organizations will do their best to fill the gaps, but they do not have enough funding and have other priorities that could have priority, added Holdren.

Even if a “more sensible” administration follows, it will take years to rebuild the basic research capacities in universities and national laboratories – both from the point of view of recruitment and equipment, said Holdren. The United States probably experienced a scientific and technological workforce weakened accordingly.

“We already see some of the oldest and most talented people leaving the country and going elsewhere – go to Canada, go to France, go to China – where they perceive that they will be able to continue their skills and apply them for productive purposes,” said Holdren.

DOGE Promote that he has enabled taxpayers a total of $ 170 billion due to the cuts, the EPA ranking, the n ° 6 of the “ranking of the agency”, which seems to list the 10 best agencies that saved the most money.

Lawyers and environmental activists are preparing to combat any policy adopted by the Trump administration since the presidential election in November.

“We have the tools to fight,” said Bender.