Stop the continuing assault on the US environment

As many concerned Americans know, or should know, congressional Representatives Debbie Dingell, Democrat from Michigan, and Jim Fortenberry, Republican from Nebraska, have introduced in the House of Congress a bipartisan bill titled the “Recovering America’s Wildlife Act” (RAWA), which is also cosponsored by Representatives Joe Courtney, Jahana Hayes and John Larson of Connecticut.

The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act would secure $1.3 billion annually for state and local agencies to help protect all “imperiled” species of plant and animal life ­— not just “endangered” ones. Already, President Trump and his anti-environmentalist Trump-dominated GOP are threatening to Kill the Bill.  

What has happened to our Grand Old Party that once stood for fiscal responsibility and protection of the environment?   Since Trump took office in 2017, the Trump GOP has rolled back no fewer than 85 environmental protection rules and regulations. Trump appoints to head  agencies such as the Environmental  Protection  Agency (EPA) persons who oppose the purpose for which the agency exists. 

The Trump GOP has undermined the U.S. Clean Air Act of 1970 as well as the 1972 rules ensuring Clean Water,  the Clean Power Plan of 2015, and the Federal Vehicle Emissions Standards going back to 1968 when Ronald Reagan was president. Trump also decided to scrap the U.S. Food Safety Regulations of 2011. Denying the science of global warming, Trump  decided to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2017. (Trump simply didn’t “believe” it.)

The Trump GOP is taking steps to weaken or abolish the Endangered Species Act signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1973. Now they want to kill off American wildlife by blocking the RAWA initiative. What lies behind Trump’s thinking, if anything? It’s anyone’s guess. Perhaps the best clue to Trump’s motivation lies in his criticism of energy-efficient lightbulbs: “They make my face look orange.”

The only face-saving way out of this is for all concerned Americans to show up in the election booth in 2020 and vote the anti-environmentalists — every one of them — out of office.  

Anthony Piel is a former Director and General Legal Counsel of the World Health Organization.