The health of the environment was once a non-partisan issue. Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency and George H.W. Bush signed the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendment which passed by large votes in both the House and Senate. Those days seem like a distant memory when we look at the blatant attacks on the environment and public health by the Trump administration.
From the reversal of the environmental impact statement required for the Dakota Access Pipeline, to the resurrection of the Keystone XL pipeline,to the decision not to ban the toxic pesticide chlorpyrifos, the Trump administration has made it abundantly clear that it will put corporate polluters first, and the public’s health and well-being and our climate last. It is up to us to resist the assault on our health, our environment, and our climate. Fortunately, we have some members of Congress who have stepped up to lead the way.
Our champions in the House have introduced the Safe Energy Future Plan to close fracking loopholes and exceptions that have been made at the expense of public health and safety. Senator Merkley has reintroduced the KEEP IT IN THE GROUND ACT, which would stop new fossil fuel leases and end non-producing leases for coal, oil, gas, oil shale and tar sands extraction on federal lands. Senators Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Michael Bennet of Colorado, have lead the charge with a record 40 cosponsors for the Arctic Refuge Wilderness bill that would designate the 1.5 million-acre Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge as wilderness, with the bipartisan House version being led by Jared Huffman (D-CA) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA).
The Trump administration may be working its hardest to overturn our progress in combating climate change and rescind protections for our most sacred places from drilling and mining, but that has not, nor will not stop the people-powered movement working to keep dirty fuels in the ground and justly transition to a world powered by clean energy.
On Saturday April 29th, over 200,000 people took to the streets of Washington, DC, joined by tens of thousands across the country, for the People’s Climate March, demanding that the Trump administration act on climate. We will not sit idly by while Trump’s EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, tries to dismantle the agency he is charged with running.
Trump and his cabinet of fossil fools will continue its attack on the basic rights to clean air and water, but between our champions in Congress and the millions of people across the country, we will resist, we will build our movement, and we will demand immediate action on climate.