The Trump administration stuck its head firmly in the sand this week about the scientific reality of climate change, dragging every American face-first into the dirt with them. Negating the federal government’s legal basis for regulating greenhouse emissions, as the White House said it would seek to do, is to ignore the reality plainly evident in every corner of this nation.
The United States recorded 27 billion-dollar natural disasters last year and the thread that connects them is a climate destabilized by the byproducts of fossil fuel consumption. Addressing climate change is a fight for the very existence of coastal communities such as Hampton Roads. President Donald Trump would have us wage it with both hands tied behind our back.
In 2007, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Massachusetts v Environmental Protection Agency concluded the EPA had a legal requirement under the Clean Air Act to address greenhouse emissions since they, as air pollutants, harm public health. Two years later, the agency issued what is known as its “endangerment finding,” which allowed the EPA to impose regulations on “motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources that are heating the planet,” according to the Associated Press.
The regulatory framework has been a constant target by industry groups and anti-climate activists, who have filed more than 100 lawsuits in a futile effort to overturn it. The Supreme Court declined to review its 2007 ruling when given the opportunity in 2023, and legal experts speaking to The New York Times earlier this year cast doubt on efforts to overturn the EPA’s finding.
That hasn’t stopped the Trump White House from trying. This week, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced plans to withdraw the finding, akin to pulling out the agency’s teeth. He crowed on a podcast that “repealing (the endangerment finding) will be the largest deregulatory action in the history of America” and lamented it “cost Americans a lot of money.”
As Zeldin spoke Tuesday about the decision on Fox News, a small graphic in the corner of the screen noted that some 161 million Americans, or nearly half the country, were at risk that day due to extreme heat. Zeldin made his announcement only weeks after an unprecedented rainstorm caused flash flooding in Texas that killed at least 138 people, and months after wildfires in Los Angeles killed 30 people. Those fires inflicted damage that could reach $250 billion, if Zeldin is worried about things that cost Americans a lot of money.
In fact, the proliferation of extreme weather events is our reality now, and it’s one that Hampton Roads residents know all too well.
We see coastal flooding becoming more frequent, more invasive and more destructive with each passing year, even on sunny days. We watch the tropics during hurricane season, and cannot help but notice the storms’ rapid intensification in recent years. We know that sea levels are rising and understand the danger they pose to the region’s future.
None of that means squat to the president and his administration of climate change deniers. Trump has claimed this is all a Chinese hoax rather than a scientific reality and, in his first term, withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Accord. But that pales in comparison to the all-out assault on climate regulations — and the overwhelming evidence and data that underpins them — he’s undertaken upon returning to the White House.
Since taking office in January, Trump has radically and recklessly downsized the EPA; made cuts to other agencies working on climate issues, including the National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and NASA; and canceled the National Climate Assessment (which is mandated by Congress).
All of these hamstring efforts to curb greenhouse emissions and guard against a future of extreme weather that will cause more death and destruction to our communities. Successfully repealing the endangerment finding is a gamble for Trump, but Americans — including everyone in Hampton Roads — will pay the price if he’s successful.