On climate change, Donald Trump is ready to sell out our future | Editorial

As president, Trump gutted major climate policies and rolled back more than 125 rules governing clean air, water, and wildlife protection. A second term poses an even bigger threat to the environment.

The heat dome baking Philadelphia and much of the Northeast should remind voters that climate change is here — and on the ballot in November.

But only one presidential candidate has done anything about climate change, or even believes it is real. President Joe Biden has not only called climate change an “existential threat to humanity,” he has also done more to address the problem than his predecessors.

In 2022, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which marked the largest investment in clean energy ever by adding tax credits and investments in technologies like wind turbines, solar panels, electric vehicles, and hydrogen fuels. The measure is expected to reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 40% below 2005 levels by 2030.

The law is also helping to create good-paying manufacturing jobs, reduce energy costs, and strengthen the country’s energy security. No Republican lawmakers voted for it even though about two-thirds of the green energy projects are in GOP-held districts.

Biden also has signed a slew of executive orders to fight climate change, including pausing oil and gas drilling on federal lands and creating an office of environmental justice to help communities impacted by toxic pollution. And he reinstated the United States to the Paris climate agreement, which Donald Trump abandoned.

Biden’s climate record stands in stark contrast to Trump’s.

Let’s begin with the rhetoric, which is riddled with nonsense. Trump has called global warming a “con” and a “hoax.” During deep freezes or blizzards, he often takes to social media to argue against global warming.

Among Trump’s long list of foolish and bogus claims about climate change was this whopper: It was invented by the Chinese to make U.S. manufacturing noncompetitive. Trump also falsely said the noise from wind turbines causes cancer.

Beyond the drivel of his climate comments, Trump’s actions were worse than his words.

Moments after being inaugurated, the White House website deleted nearly all mentions of climate change. The following year, Trump rejected his own government’s findings that warned natural disasters were becoming more frequent, intense, and costly because of global warming.

After reading some of the report, Trump said, “I don’t believe it.”

During his one term, Trump gutted major climate policies and rolled back more than 125 rules governing clean air, water, wildlife, and toxic chemicals. He relaxed regulations designed to curb carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants.

The sweeping deregulation was projected to add 1.8 billion metric tons of greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere by 2035 — more than the combined annual energy emissions of Germany, Britain, and Canada.

Trump absurdly called himself a “great environmentalist” and compared his record with Teddy Roosevelt, America’s conservation president. He has no shame.

Trump weakened a 102-year-old law that protected migratory birds and the Endangered Species Act, which was signed into law by President Richard Nixon and is credited with saving the alligator, bald eagle, and grizzly bear from extinction.

Trump put anti-environmentalists in charge of environmental policy. He appointed Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt was a climate change denier who repeatedly sued the EPA before taking over the agency.

Once installed, Pruitt cozied up to polluters. After he resigned amid a cloud of ethics scandals, Trump installed Andrew Wheeler, a coal lobbyist, to head the EPA. Wheeler proceeded to eliminate the agency’s Office of Science Advisor, Policy, and Engagement while undermining mercury pollution safeguards and weakening air, water, and land regulations.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump promised to revive the coal industry. He frequently blathered about ending the war on coal and his love for “clean coal” when talking to crowds in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

“If I win, we’re going to bring those miners back,” Trump said at a 2016 rally.

By the time Trump left office in 2020, thousands of coal mining jobs were lost, and coal production fell by 32%. “My friends were lied to,” a coal miner from Pennsylvania said in 2020.

On the campaign trail this year, Trump no longer mentions coal. It is easy to see why.

“Not a single coal miner went back to work or power plant saved,” a spokeswoman for the United Mine Workers of America recently told the New York Times.

In the end, Trump failed to help workers but did plenty of damage. The upshot of Trump’s scattershot actions was more pollution, more drilling, and more deforestation.

A second Trump presidency poses an even bigger threat to the environment. Allies and advisers are already plotting a more focused effort to sideline science, rollback regulations, and boost fossil fuel production.

The first steps would likely be to reverse Biden’s efforts to curb planet-heating emissions and to withdraw again from the Paris climate accord. The top target would be to repeal or dismantle Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act.

House Republicans have tried to chip away at the measure even as it has brought jobs and investment to their districts.

Meanwhile, Trump repeatedly makes false claims about electric vehicles and wind power. At rallies, Trump has called renewable energy a “scam business” and vowed to “drill, baby, drill.”

In a recent meeting with oil executives, Trump promised to reverse Biden’s environmental regulations and policies while asking for $1 billion in campaign donations. Griping about regulations by the oil bosses came as the industry posted record profits.

The meeting provided a window into the corrupt and transactional way Trump operates. He is willing to sell out future generations to help himself.

A Trump victory in November would lead to an additional four billion tons of carbon emissions, causing $900 billion in global climate damages, according to an analysis.

A recent poll found a large majority of U.S. adults support Biden’s plans to slash climate pollution, including 50% of Republicans. Given Trump’s threat to the environment, why support a one-man Superfund site?