WASHINGTON – On June 4, 2020, Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing his administration to bypass environmental regulations and speed up fossil fuel projects like mines and pipelines. The order will allow White House officials to circumvent bedrock environmental laws like the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act and all but eliminate public participation in decisions affecting communities near infrastructure projects.
In response, Greenpeace USA Climate Campaign Director Janet Redman said:
“Donald Trump’s anti-environment agenda is a racist agenda. We are in the middle of a pandemic that has disproportionately killed Black, Brown, and Indigenous people in this country. We are fighting against extractive industries that have wrecked our climate while treating working-class communities of color as sacrifice zones for decades. This executive order is another manifestation of the white supremacy that has driven Trump’s policymaking from day one, and it will have deadly consequences. We urge leaders in Congress to step in and stop this attempt to put lives at stake so polluters can profit.
“The Trump administration’s repeated attempts to gut public health and environmental regulations have nothing to do with jumpstarting the economy. In fact, they go back well before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since taking office, Trump has tried to weaken or repeal more than 100 policies designed to protect people from pollution, ensure access to clean air and water, and give communities a voice in decisions that impact their environmental health. We will not allow fossil fuel executives to hide under the cover of a pandemic while they enact their polluting agenda.”