Please invest in Our Daily Planet today, by making a one time or monthly contribution.
We do not charge our readers a subscription fee for our content. We want to continue to grow our readership, particularly among millennials and public servants. Voluntary contributions from readers will help us employ interns and freelance journalists, expand our content, and reach a larger audience.
If you make a contribution of $150 or more, you will become an official “Friend of the Planet” and receive a Friend of the Planet T-shirt or water bottle.
Our Daily Planet is a daily morning email (M-F) to keep you informed of the stories shaping our environment. If these issues matter to you, we’d like to be the best ten minutes of your morning.
Photo: Flickr/Stiller Beobachter via National Wildlife Federation
By Natasha Lasky, ODP Contributing Writer
Over the course of the Trump presidency, the Trump administration has unraveled nearly all of Obama’s environmental policies. A new report from the Rhodium Group suggests that this could pump 1.8 billion tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere over the next fifteen years. “The Trump administration is the first in the history of the agency to devote itself so relentlessly to a rollback agenda without even a pretense of meaningfully reducing environmental pollution,” John Walke, an attorney and senior adviser to the NRDC Action Fund, told The Intercept.
Why this Matters: Trump’s swift reversal of environmental policies is unprecedented in the time since the major environmental laws were enacted, and these actions are likely to have dire impacts if courts uphold them. The cumulative impacts of the rollback of just a few of the most important environmental rules could have a drastic effect on the planet since U.S. emissions impact temperatures across the globe. And taken together the 1.8 billion tons of greenhouse gasses emitted are more than the combined energy emissions of Germany, Great Britain, and Canada in one year, according to The New York Times.
At Least 100 Policies Revoked or Weakened
The Trump administration revoked or impaired at least 100 policies, but here are a few of the most dramatic rollbacks:
Fuel Emission Standards: The Trump administration changed Obama-era rules that required new passenger cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks sold in the United States to become less polluting over time — automakers will now have to improve just 1.5% per year rather than 5% every year.
Revoking California’s rights to set its own emissions standards: The transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions for the United States, and much of that comes from California. Because of this, California set more strict limits on emissions than the rest of the US, which the Trump administration has since revoked. According to the Rhodium report, “If California and its coalition states lose their ongoing lawsuit against the EPA and the waiver is revoked, this would increase emissions by 573 million metric ton, cumulatively, through 2035.”
If states continue to implement policies to combat climate change, they could undermine the Trump administration’s rollbacks, and potentially provide the federal government models of climate policies with demonstrated success should Biden win in November.
Delegates attending the COP26 conference in Glasgow will get to see a very cool display during their stay. So cool, in fact, that it’s been frozen since 1765. Artist Wayne Binitie and scientists of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have retrieved an Antarctic time capsule containing the world’s purest air. The pocket of atmosphere was […]
By Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer The European Environment Agency (EEA) found that a majority of EU countries broke at least one air pollution limit last year — despite COVID-19 lockdowns. In addition, 17 EU countries failed to stay below ozone pollution targets, which directly influence global warming; and eight EU countries failed to stay […]
By Ashira Morris, ODP Staff Writer An Indonesian district court ruled yesterday that Indonesian President Joko Widodo has neglected Jakarta’s residents right to clean air. In a unanimous ruling in favor of the 32 residents who brought the case, the Central Jakarta District Court ordered Widodo, and six other top officials deemed negligent, to improve […]
Subscribe to the email that top lawmakers, renowned scientists, and thousands of concerned citizens turn to each morning for the latest environmental news and analysis.
Want the lastest climate news summarized for you each morning?
Our Daily Planet is your daily dose of the stories shaping our world and the ways that you can take action. From the climate crisis to the protection of biodiversity, if these issues matter to you then please subscribe & stay informed!
Your privacy is Important! We promise never to use your email address to send you spam or advertisements.