An analysis has shown that Donald Trump is approving environmental projects of any sort on federal land at half the rate that Obama did, year by year, during his term. On the other hand, there has been a marked increase in permission given by Trump for drilling for oil and other fossil fuels on federal land.
It is clear that regardless of the evidence, Trump is determined wherever possible to stymie and limit the reduction in carbon emissions that the USA can reach.
The impact? Higher prices for consumers, worse air quality and likely damage to the future USA residents in terms of job prospects and the standards of living they can expect.
While I am not an American, regular readers of this blog will have noticed a desire to point out foolish moves by politicians from a number of countries. I have mentioned a few governments, being based in the UK I have certainly spoken about the the many foolish decisions made by the current British government as well as one or two sensible ones.
However I seem to find myself writing about Trump more often than anyone else. I hope this is not irritating; it is certainly highly important. Trump runs the country with the highest emissions in the world, and per capita is above almost every other country in the world – unfortunately while his predecessor Obama was trying to make strides towards dealing with this, Trump has put all his effort into reversing its progress. This is not the advantage of Americans, a family with solar panels and batteries and with an electric car is likely to have costs that are at least a couple of thousand dollars less per year after all costs are taken into account.
I hope any American readers will take these things into account later this year when they are choosing who to vote for. Analysis has shown that far from not being impacted by climate change affects, the USA is the country that will be hit third highest in the world by increasing global temperatures. It is therefore a false choice Trump is offering you: you either cut global emissions or improve your standard of life. I hope that Americans as a country will make the sensible decision while you can still do something about it.