Trump’s policies could affect the environment long after they leave office, some experts say

Some of the promulgated policies under the Trump administration will have a lasting impact on the environment after the current president leaves the position, some environmental policy experts said to ABC News.

President Donald Trump has promulgated a broad number of policies that could damage the environment and disable the country’s ability to reach a zero net emission economy since assuming the position, these experts said.

Executive orders include a Declaration of a national energy emergencyexpanding mining and the use of coal in the United States and eliminating the United States from Paris Agreement For the second time.

Policies come from the idea of ​​the independence of the United States or “Put to America first“The President orders the State.

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

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

In March 6The White House announced that deregulation efforts have saved more than $ 180 billion, around $ 2,100 per family of four, by stopping the proposed regulations of the Biden era.

“When assuming the position, President Trump immediately blocked these proposed rules and has initiated an aggressive deregulating agenda that requires substantial cuts in the existing regulations for each new agency rule,” said the White House. “President Trump undertakes to cut the meaningless bureaucracy that will reduce costs, lead to greater growth and lead to the United States to his golden age.”

Some of these actions will be difficult to see through fruits, especially those that focus on increasing the production and use of fossil fuels, since the rest of the world seeks to convert their economies to function with clean energy, experts told ABC News.

However, campaigns against wind, energy, batteries, the load of electric vehicles and energy efficiency will put the United States on a slower path to control global warming, a professor of Environmental Sciences and Policies and former scientific advisor of President Barack Obama.

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

“We have the greatest amount of oil and gas in any country on Earth, and we will use it,” Trump said during his inauguration speech in January. “We will reduce prices, fill our strategic reserves again to the top and export US energy throughout the world. We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help do it.”

Deregulation of the Environmental Protection Agency

The deregulation of the Environmental Protection Agency is among the changes of the Trump administration that are expected to have a harmful impact in the coming decades, Holly Bender, director of programs of the Sierra Club, a non -profit environmental organization, told ABC News.

On March 12, the EPA announced scanning movements To resort to environmental protections and eliminate a series of climate change regulations, described by the EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, such as the “largest deregulatory action in the history of the United States.”

Among the 31 actions include emission regulations on coal, oil and gas and reevaluation of government findings that previously determined that greenhouse gas emissions heat up the planet and are a threat to public health.

These actions are reversing the policies that have a “broad public support”, such as financing the replacement of lead pipes, reducing the contamination of mercury in air and water and reverting protections for public lands, said Bender.

“This is the agency in which they are establishing standards for toxic and dangerous air pollutants, such as dioxin or mercury, for which there is no safe exposure level,” said Bender.

He 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law He invested billions in the cleaning of inherited pollution, strengthening the country’s water infrastructure and increasing resources to help companies reduce toxic pollutants, with an approach to unattended and overloaded communities.

In a statement to ABC News, the EPA said: “While the EPA Biden tried repeatedly usurpar the constitution and the rule of right to impose its ‘new green scam’, Trump’s EPA is focused on the laser to achieve results for the US people while operating within the laws approved by Congress.”

“We believe that protecting human health and the environment does not have to come at the expense of creating jobs and boosting the great American return,” said EPA spokesman. “We can and we will deliver to both. The EPA has not lost its time advancing 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 blocking the president’s agenda, the EPA is also helping to unleash US energy, the reform of the reform of the United States, makes the United States in the world and brings to the works of American self-auto of America. “

Dismantling of the Oceanic and Atmospheric National Administration

Personnel reductions in the Oceanic and Atmospheric National Administration could have reverberant impacts on how meteorologists throughout the country predict the climate, experts who spoke with ABC warned.

NOAA and the National Meteorological Service, which is part of NOAA, are responsible for the routine and extreme climate that forecasts throughout the country: tracking hurricanes, tornadoes, forest fires, tsunamis and other potentially potentially fatal events

But some research laboratories, regional offices and satellite operations facilities have been closed as a result of personnel cuts, the agency announced in recent months.

The essential function, such as satellite information, climate and its effect on the engine of aircraft, come from these offices, said Craig Mclean, former NOAA research director, during a press conference in March. The cuts will lead to significant consequences for the accuracy of the climate prognosis, sea navigation, fishing industry and air safety

In addition to the forecasts, the climatic adaptation will also be affected, said Holdren. The country’s ability to adapt to the damage caused by more extreme heat waves, floods, droughts, forest fires, hurricanes and increased sea level could be compromised as a result of personnel reductions within NOAA.

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

TO BUDGET PROPOSAL PROJECT By the Office of Administration and Budget, it suggested a possible reduction of 27%, around 27%, in NOAA funds for fiscal year 2026.

It is not clear if enough personnel will be in any number of regional forecast offices to continue operations 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with positions that are generally to the personnel of the 122 NWS prognosis offices, 13 river prognosis centers and two tsunami warning centers eliminated, said the general lawyer of the National Meteorological Service, Richard Hirn in March.

Shots to key scientific agencies

Thousands of positions have been eliminated in federal government agencies that carry out crucial scientific investigations, including EPA, NASA, NOAA, the United States fishing and wild life service and the National Parks Service, with the launch of the Government Efficiency Department, an initiative of the Trump administration to reduce federal expenditure and maximize government productivity.

The cuts extend widely between engineering and science and will result in a lack of scientific advances and international competitiveness derived from the United States, which will also have lasting cultural and economic impacts, said Holden.

“It is the soul of innovation that over the years, since World War II, has given the United States not only the strongest economy in the world, but also the most productive agriculture, the most robust environmental protection, the most capable army,” he said. “You cannot expect the private sector to replace these great cuts in a fundamental investigation.”

Philanthropic organizations will do everything possible to fill the gaps, but they do not have enough funds and have other priorities that may have priority, Holden added.

Even if it follows a “more sensible” administration, it will have been reconstructing the capacities for the fundamental search in national universities and laboratories, both from the recruitment point of view and the teams, said Holdren. The United States is likely to experience a weakened scientific and technological workforce as a result.

“We are already seeing some of the greatest and most talented people who leave the country and go to another place, going to Canada, going to France, going to China, where they perceive that they can pursue their skills and apply them for productive purposes,” said Holden.

DOGE He states that he has saved taxpayers a total of $ 170 billion as a result of the cuts, with the EPA classification as number 6 in the “Agency Efficiency Table”, which seems to list the 10 main agencies that have saved the most money.

Environmental lawyers and activists have been preparing to fight any policy promulgated by the Trump administration from the presidential elections in November.

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