Coal miners listen as President Donald J Trump speaks and signs executive orders about coal production during a “Unleashing American Energy Executive Order Signing Event.”<\/span>Jabin Botsford\/The Washington Post\/Getty<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n This story was originally published by<\/em>\u00a0Inside Climate News<\/a> and is reproduced here as part of the<\/em>\u00a0Climate Desk<\/a>\u00a0collaboration<\/em>.<\/p>\n One hundred days <\/span>into the second Trump administration, many environmentalists\u2019 worst fears about the new presidency have been realized\u2014and surpassed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Facing a spate of orders, pronouncements and actions that target America\u2019s most cherished natural resources and most vulnerable communities, advocates fear the Trump agenda, unchecked, will set the country back decades.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not an overstatement to say that the Trump administration has launched the worst White House assault in history on the environment and public health. Day by day and hour by hour, the administration is destroying one of the signature achievements of our time,\u201d said Manish Bapna, the president and CEO of the environmental nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). \u201cIf this assault succeeds, it could take a generation or more to repair the damage.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a statement to Inside Climate News<\/em> that the president\u2019s \u201ccorrupt assault on clean air, clean water, and affordable clean energy has helped make him the least popular president ever 100 days into the job.\u201d <\/p>\n Polling shows President Donald Trump\u2019s approval rate\u201439 percent<\/a>, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll\u2014is lower than any president\u2019s at the 100-day mark since such polling began.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump\u2019s fossil-fuel-funded gangster government prioritizes lawlessness and disdain for the Constitution, not lowering household energy costs, or incentivizing economic growth, or reducing pollution,\u201d Whitehouse said. \u201cThe American people know this has made them worse off, and it will get worse still.\u201d<\/p>\n A press release issued by the White House on\u00a0Earth Day<\/a>\u00a0last week presented a very different picture. Titled \u201cOn Earth Day, We Finally Have a President Who Follows Science,\u201d the memo outlined key actions taken by Trump on the environment so far. These included \u201cpromoting energy innovation for a healthier future,\u201d such as carbon capture and nuclear energy; \u201ccutting wasteful regulations\u201d like emissions rules for coal plants; \u201cprotecting wildlife\u201d by ordering a pause on offshore wind; and \u201cprotecting public lands\u201d by opening more of them to oil, gas, and mineral extraction \u201cwhile ensuring responsible management.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n When reached for comment, the White House did not respond directly to the criticisms leveled at the administration for its environmental record so far, but instead affirmed a commitment to protection\u2014repeating words Trump used during his campaign and since his election.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the President has said, the American people deserve clean air and clean water,\u201d White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers responded. \u201cIn less than 100 days, EPA Administrator [Lee] Zeldin is taking steps to quickly remove toxins from our water and environment, provide clean land for Americans, and use commonsense policies to Power the Great American Comeback.\u201d<\/p>\n To environmental experts, the Earth Day press release was indicative of a pattern in the administration\u2019s communications with the public. \u201cThis is really a master class in doublespeak,\u201d said Hannah Perls, a senior staff attorney at the Harvard University Environmental and Energy Law Program.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rather than supporting \u201ca healthier future,\u201d in its first 100 days, the administration slashed government agencies and rescinded rules that lower pollution levels and improve public health outcomes. Instead of \u201cenergy innovation,\u201d the president\u00a0championed coal<\/a>\u00a0while killing renewable energy projects. Instead of protecting public lands, Trump fired\u00a0thousands of parks and forest service<\/a>\u00a0employees, threatened to gut the\u00a0Endangered Species Act<\/a>\u00a0and encouraged logging and drilling on federal lands. And instead of \u201cfollowing science,\u201d the president cut critical research funding across disciplines and ignored expert consensus on climate change and conservation.<\/p>\n The administration, which has doubled down on\u00a0climate denial<\/a>, is also withdrawing the United States from the\u00a0Paris Agreement<\/a>\u2014the treaty designed to help the world avoid the most dangerous consequences of the climate crisis\u2014and cut loose the scientists working on the\u00a0nation\u2019s key climate assessment<\/a>.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s typical for a new administration to alter existing policies, the actions of the second Trump administration on climate and the environment are unprecedented\u2014even compared with Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n \u201cWe always anticipate policy reversals with every administration, whether it\u2019s Democrat or Republican,\u201d Perls said. Those reversals used a \u201cscalpel approach,\u201d where policies were considered and changed on a case-by-case basis.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis time around, they\u2019re using dynamite,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople under 50<\/span> don\u2019t have any real life experience with just how dirty the air was before the Clean Air Act was passed in 1970,\u201d said David Hawkins, senior attorney in climate and energy at NRDC. \u201cWell, I do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He described living in New York City in the 1960s, his windowsill \u201cblack with soot in the morning\u201d; plumes of smoke pouring from scores of apartment buildings, building furnaces and incinerators; the \u201ctunnel of haze\u201d obscuring Manhattan\u2019s long avenues, the lead in the air \u201cspewed from all of these automobiles, trucks and buses.\u201d<\/p>\n Over his lifetime, Hawkins said in a call with the press in April, he watched as government regulations helped to curb this pollution. Regulations lowered toxic emissions. They reduced rates of respiratory illnesses, heart disease and premature deaths. And they brought huge economic and environmental benefits to the United States. \u201cHere\u2019s the scary news: These gains can be lost,\u201d he said. \u201cKeeping the air clean is not automatic.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Hawkins said the administration\u2019s attempts to\u00a0sunset or repeal swaths of environmental regulations<\/a>\u00a0could undo the progress of the last 55 years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t know exactly how broadly this executive order will be applied, but it could mean the end of protections that are keeping our air clean,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the rules are sunset, there\u2019s no legal obligation for these polluters to keep their equipment operating.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Environmental attorneys have called the sunsetting provision \u201csimply unlawful\u201d and questioned whether it would ever hold up in court. But the order is just one effort of dozens by the administration to roll back regulations and drastically shrink the workforce that writes, interprets, and enforces those rules. The White House plan for the Environmental Protection Agency would cut the budget\u00a0by 65 percent<\/a>, forcing the agency to operate with less money than it has had since its founding in 1970, adjusted for inflation.<\/p>\n Perls worries about the loss of career expertise at the EPA, which can\u2019t easily be replaced\u2014and she is concerned about the signal the orders send to industry, even if they are ultimately struck down in court. \u201cI think it is reasonable to anticipate that many industries are going to see this as a green light to pollute with abandon,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe administration has made very clear in this first 100 days who they are for and who they are against,\u201d said Geoff Gisler, program director for the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC). \u201cAnd as we expected, they are looking to empower heavy polluting industries, and they are putting the burden on communities to deal with the pollution that results from this.\u201d<\/p>\n SELC is a nonprofit law firm that represents environmental groups across the Southeast on a wide range of cases. The group is currently\u00a0suing the Trump administration<\/a>, arguing that the administration\u2019s freezing of grant funds is an \u201cunlawful interference by the executive branch\u201d and violates the First Amendment.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is complete disregard for any sort of legally required process,\u201d Gisler said. \u201cWe saw some of that in the first [Trump] administration. This time they\u2019re taking it to a new level.\u201d<\/p>\n Perls and Hawkins both emphasized that the administration\u2019s policies, if enacted as proposed, will have a real-world impact on many Americans\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are very real public health harms that come from having our primary public health enforcement agency abandon its obligation to protect and safeguard human health,\u201d Perls said of the cuts at EPA and a March memo saying the agency would no longer consider race or socioeconomic status in its enforcement. Communities with more people of color and lower-income residents often face worse pollution, the result of both historic and current discrimination.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople will die as a result of these exposures. It might not be tomorrow, it might not be in six months, but people will die,\u201d she said. The Harvard environmental and energy law program is tracking the administration\u2019s\u00a0environmental justice<\/a>\u00a0actions in an online database.<\/p>\n Environmental justice organizations nationwide are reeling from federal funding freezes. EPA suspended millions of dollars in grants for\u00a0projects<\/a>\u00a0like planting trees, air monitoring, and preventing child lead poisoning. The agency is also dismantling its\u00a0environmental justice offices<\/a>\u00a0and deleted its environmental justice mapping tool, EJ Screen, that helps people understand how exposures differ across the nation.<\/p>\n \u201cCausing chaos was the goal,\u201d said Patrick Drupp, director of climate policy for the Sierra Club. \u201cSmall community groups that are counting on that money for environmental justice, or community solar projects\u2014they can\u2019t wait out long court battles, even if they ultimately prevail. Same thing with federal workers who were illegally fired. People can\u2019t just sit around and wait eight months for a court case to play out and find out whether they\u2019re actually able to keep their job.\u201d<\/p>\n The administration\u2019s efforts to erase and halt federal work on climate and the environment have not been limited to EPA. At the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Kristi Noem ordered the end of \u201call climate change activities and the use of climate change terminology.\u201d The Federal Emergency Management Agency ended the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, which allocates grants for projects like flood control, wildfire management, and infrastructure maintenance that reduce disaster risk.<\/p>\n Sweeping cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services have impacted programs like the\u00a0Low-Income Housing Energy Assistance Program<\/a>, which has seen funding cut off because all of the federal staff administering the program were fired. The program helps families with heating and cooling bills, weatherizing their homes, and keeping their electricity and gas turned on. HHS also fired 200 staff members in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice who worked on health issues related to the environment and climate change, like asthma and air pollution.<\/p>\n In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the Department of Justice to\u00a0terminate<\/a>\u00a0\u201call environmental justice programs, offices and jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe attack on environmental justice is an attack on the millions of Americans relying on\u00a0clean air and clean water<\/a>\u00a0across our country,\u201d said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), in a press release in response to Bondi\u2019s move. \u201cTrump and his oil-loving cronies are not just making the climate crisis worse. They are also harming the most vulnerable communities in America.\u201d<\/p>\n In Trump\u2019s first administration, his team at EPA framed their approach as \u201cback to basics\u201d\u2014a turning away from action on climate change and back to the air and water quality concerns that were the original impetus for federal environmental law.\u00a0<\/p>\n When asked by Inside Climate News <\/em>about the environmental record of the second Trump administration\u2019s first 100 days, a White House official noted some examples: the ramping up of efforts to end\u00a0decades of raw sewage<\/a>\u00a0flowing into Southern California from Tijuana, Mexico, and Zeldin\u2019s work on a\u00a0set of proposals<\/a>\u00a0to tackle exposure to dangerous \u201cforever chemicals,\u201d known as PFAS.<\/p>\n But many environmental accomplishments the White House has pointed to raise their own concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re trying to kill the administrative state.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n For example, Zeldin has been notably silent on whether the administration will oppose the chemical industry\u2019s effort to overturn the Biden administration\u2019s PFAS regulations, which were accompanied by $1 billion for state-level water testing and treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n The White House has touted its speed-up in approval of state plans to implement the Clean Air Act, many of which were backlogged under the Biden administration. Some clean air groups fear the state plans are being rubber-stamped.\u00a0<\/p>\n A White House official also noted that the EPA completed the largest wildfire response in agency history, clearing 13,000 Los Angeles properties of hazardous materials in just 28 days at the start of the administration. But local groups protested the EPA\u2019s use of a coastal wetland as a staging site for the toxic debris from the Palisades and Eaton fires.<\/p>\n The administration\u2019s cuts have largely been carried out in the name of \u201celiminating waste,\u201d and led by\u00a0Trump donor<\/a>\u00a0Elon Musk\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But experts say it\u2019s clear from the aggressive scale and speed of the administration\u2019s conduct that this is not really the goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re trying to cure cancer, you excise the tumor. You don\u2019t kill the patient,\u201d Perls said. \u201cThey\u2019re not trying to excise a tumor. They\u2019re trying to kill the administrative state.\u201d<\/p>\n Since retaking office,<\/span> Trump has dramatically reconfigured federal agencies that manage Western public land, to the potential detriment of those landscapes and the wildlife and communities that rely on them.<\/p>\n In February, the National Park Service fired 1,000 employees, only for\u00a0two US District Court judges to order them reinstated<\/a>, destabilizing parks across the country as they prepare for the busiest season of the year. Trump has also cut the US Forest Service\u2019s workforce by 10 percent, and thousands of others\u00a0reportedly accepted resignation offers<\/a>. Funding freezes have\u00a0stalled vital conservation work<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, employees at DOGE, overseen by billionaire Musk, have been\u00a0given the reins<\/a>\u00a0at the Department of the Interior, where Secretary Doug Burgum has\u00a0touted the idea of selling off public lands<\/a>\u00a0to address the nation\u2019s housing crisis. The Trump administration has also issued\u00a0executive orders to streamline mining<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0fast-track highly controversial projects<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFederal public lands are owned by all Americans,\u201d said Mike Quigley, the Arizona state director for the Wilderness Society. \u201cThey\u2019re managed by the federal government on our behalf, and so if you\u2019re looking to do a mine on public land, the comment period and the NEPA process that the agency undergoes was designed to allow the owners of the land a say. That\u2019s you, me, the person down the street, your next-door neighbor, whoever. And when I hear \u2018streamlining,\u2019 I worry that that\u2019s a euphemism for rubber stamps.\u201d<\/p>\n Fast-tracking mining and oil and gas drilling could threaten some of America\u2019s most iconic species and landscapes. \u201cWe have some of the last best wildlife habitat in the lower 48,\u201d said Alec Underwood, program director of the Wyoming Outdoor Council, an environmental nonprofit based in Lander. \u201cIt\u2019s irreplaceable.\u201d<\/p>\n Staffing and regulatory whiplash has already had tangible impacts. Layoffs have affected \u201creal folks who live in our communities and work on public lands,\u201d said Underwood. \u201cA lot of them are now out of jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n The oil and gas industry has cheered Trump\u2019s actions over the past 100 days. The Western Energy Alliance, a Colorado-based trade association for oil and gas companies, praised the president\u2019s \u201cdecisive action to promote oil and natural gas development.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen a dramatic shift from an administration that imposed restrictive policies, limited permitting, and threatened energy projects, to one that is actively supporting development,\u201d said Kathleen Sgamma, president of the alliance, in a press release. Sgamma, who withdrew from consideration to\u00a0lead the Bureau of Land Management<\/a>\u00a0after her loyalty to Trump came under scrutiny, also lauded the EPA\u2019s \u201caggressive deregulatory actions.\u201d<\/p>\n Elsewhere in the West, communities and environmentalists are\u00a0bracing for the reduction or elimination of national monuments<\/a>. In March, the Trump administration announced it would\u00a0eliminate California\u2019s Chuckwalla and S\u00e1tt\u00edtla Highlands national monuments<\/a>\u00a0before removing language from a White House fact sheet announcing the decision. <\/p>\n Last week,\u00a0the Washington Post<\/em> reported<\/a>\u00a0the administration was considering shrinking Baaj Nwaavjo I\u2019tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon, Ironwood Forest, Chuckwalla, Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, Bears Ears, and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments\u2014all despite\u00a0monuments and their protections\u00a0<\/a>enjoying nearly universal popularity with voters.\u00a0<\/p>\n Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, executive director of the Western Environmental Law Center, said the administration\u2019s haphazard approach to governing puts the country in peril. \u201cIt does feel like we\u2019re Wile E. Coyote,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve run off the proverbial cliff edge and we are hanging in open space with nothing underneath us, and that feels deeply perilous.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, \u201cGravity will take hold at some juncture, and so I think a lot of organizations like ours are thinking about, \u2018How do we mitigate the impacts of that fall to things we care about, like public lands and wildlife in the West, free-flowing rivers?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The administration has also taken aim at conservation and climate-focused programs run by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), stranding tens of thousands of farmers who were counting on funding and technical help from the agency.<\/p>\n Under Trump\u2019s\u00a0Unleashing American Energy<\/a>\u00a0executive order, billions of dollars in conservation and climate funding for farmers\u00a0were immediately frozen<\/a>. The order targeted the Biden administration\u2019s signature climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, which directed $19.5 billion to farmers for implementing climate practices or energy efficiency measures on their farms. Some of that funding has since been unfrozen by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, but it remains unclear when it will be distributed.<\/p>\n Lawsuits filed by legal advocacy groups on behalf of farmers\u00a0are seeking<\/a>\u00a0the restoration of some of that funding. An analysis by former USDA employees says the agency\u00a0owes nearly $2 billion<\/a>\u00a0to more than 22,000 farmers for conservation and energy efficiency programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Earlier this month the agency canceled\u00a0a $3 billion Biden-era program<\/a>, the Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities, rebranding it as the Advancing Markets for Producers program. The agency said it would only continue funding projects under the program according to new criteria.\u00a0<\/p>\n Similarly, the agency said it would only fund projects under the Rural Energy for America Program if recipients revise their grant applications to \u201cremove harmful DEIA and far-left climate features.\u201d DEIA stands for diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, a term that includes equal-opportunity efforts in the workplace and other settings.<\/p>\n The agency, which also oversees the Forest Service,\u00a0issued<\/a>\u00a0an \u201cemergency situation determination\u201d to open up 110 million acres to industrial timber interests\u2014a move that environmental groups say will hasten the destruction of old-growth forests and make forests more vulnerable to drought and wildfire. The memo came shortly after Trump issued an executive order to expand timber production in the country by 25 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPresident Trump has demonstrated his indifference to the needs of farmers most visibly with his erratic and devastating tariff policy, but his administration is also leaving farmers in the lurch when it comes to climate change,\u201d said Karen Perry Stillerman, who oversees food and farm programs for the Union of Concerned Scientists.<\/p>\n Stillerman noted that the administration scrubbed climate data from websites, forced out climate scientists at USDA and sacked the entire team that supports the US Global Change Research Program, worsening fears that the sixth National Climate Assessment, the comprehensible, congressionally mandated scientific report, will be cancelled.\u00a0\u201cBy systematically taking away vital tools that farmers need to thrive in a hotter and more dangerous future,\u201d Stillerman said, \u201cthey are endangering all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n The first 100 days of the administration featured a steady stream of executive orders and directives that critics say would undermine American science domestically and abroad, end climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives and increase the use of fossil fuels.\u00a0<\/p>\n One of the <\/span>first acts of Trump\u2019s second term was to begin withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement, the international climate pact, for the second time. At home, Trump declared a\u00a0\u201cnational energy emergency<\/a>,\u201d pushed for more oil and gas drilling,\u00a0logging<\/a>\u00a0and coal\u00a0mining<\/a>\u00a0and froze the\u00a0$27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund<\/a>, meant to fund clean energy development.\u00a0<\/p>\n The private sector has responded to Trump\u2019s climate policy shifts and erratic tariff implementation by canceling\u00a0$8 billion<\/a>\u00a0worth of planned clean energy projects in the US. In March,\u00a0scientists across the country<\/a>\u00a0protested the administration\u2019s \u201canti-science agenda\u201d and far-reaching cuts to federal funding they need to carry out their work.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the very least, it\u2019s a massive setback,\u201d said Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, of the first 100 days\u2019 \u201call-out assault\u201d on former President Joe Biden\u2019s climate agenda and the federal bureaucracy that supports environmental, climate, and health protections.\u00a0<\/p>\n A larger danger looms beyond the administration\u2019s immediate threats to the environment, he said. Any new fossil fuel infrastructure will long outlast Trump\u2019s term, increasing emissions for years to come. \u201cThe Trump administration is taking the rug out from under us,\u201d said\u00a0Gretchen Goldman<\/a>, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists. During a webinar last week, she noted that the\u00a0attacks on climate and clean energy policies<\/a>\u00a0are particularly disturbing, and threaten the \u201cforward momentum that we need at the federal level,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The policies are also unfair to most of the rest of the world, she added. \u201cThis is especially damaging in light of the fact that the US is the largest historic emitter of\u00a0heat-trapping emissions<\/a>\u00a0and needs to play its part in safeguarding the health and safety of people and the planet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n American scientists will still make major contributions to the upcoming major climate reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change despite the administration\u2019s efforts to withdraw the US government from international climate processes; climate threats like extreme heat, rising sea levels, and melting ice remain a focus for the rest of the global science community.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that we\u2019re isolating ourselves from the rest of the world just seems a profound mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n![\"Protester](\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2202145095.jpg\")
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