Ronald Trump's Viewpoints On The Environment

Since Donald Trump has taken the office of Presidency this past February, there have been many policy changes within our federal government. One of the more notable change of policy has been that of the environment, specifically focusing on the Environment Protection Agency (EPA). President Trump’s viewpoints on the environment are often compared to those of Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan believed in a free market ideology with little to no influence from the government. This led to him deregulating many environmental policies in order to put business before the safety of the environment. President Trump has a very similar viewpoint on the environment and since taking office he has rolled back an alarmingly high number of environmental
policies. Ronald Reagan and President Trump’s viewpoints on the environment and big industry are similar in many ways. After taking office of the Presidency in the 1980’s, Ronald Reagan set out to rollback regulations protecting the environment.
One of ways he set out to accomplish this task was by appointing Anne Gorsuch Burford to the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Burford was a loyalist to Reagan and followed many if not all of his orders . Burford believed that the EPA was too big, too wasteful, and too restrictive of business . Her solution to this was cutting the EPA’s budget by twenty two percent shortly after being appointed to her position. Another major policy change that Burford made to the EPA was reducing many of the clean water regulations that the EPA had . On top of that, during her time as head of the EPA there was a steep decline in the number of cases filed against polluters, the clean air act was relaxed so that restricted pesticides could be sprayed, and she attempted to set aside a thirty by forty mile area of land to burn toxic waste . Most of these actions were encouraged by President Reagan to allow big industry to thrive and do as they pleased without the EPA getting in their way. Burford was forced to resign after twenty two months in her position for being cited for contempt of congress . This gave Reagan’s presidency a bad look so he dropped Burford, even though she was directly following his orders all
along. Another person who Reagan appointed to his cabinet was James Watt, secretary of the interior. Watt also believed in deregulating environmental policies and his actions prove it. Watt was known for vastly accelerating the coal-leasing program, allowing offshore oil drilling on the outer-continental shelf, and advocating for wilderness and wildlife refuges be explored primarily for the search of oil . Once again, all of this actions supported big business and the free market ideology that Reagan supported.
President Reagan also directly impacted environmental policy. He did this by extending sovereign control two hundred miles off the United States coast, dismissed acid rain proposals, and by causing a mass resignation of EPA officials . President Reagan also indirectly deregulated the EPA and dismantled environmental policies through appointed Burford and Watt to these positions of power. He believed that this is what was best for the country allowing his vision of a smaller federal government and a free market system where big business could function uninterrupted by environmental policies unfold.
Since President Trump took office he has set out to rescind many of the conservation efforts that the Obama administration put into effect these past eight years. Trump’s appointees so far have rescinded safety regulations on fracking, loosened safety regulations on underwater drilling equipment for oil, rolled back orders to block coal mining on public land, and delayed carrying out a regulation controlling emissions of methane from oil and gas wells . Oil and gas lobbyists are very pleased with the actions of President Trump in regards to his environmental policies. This shows that Trump supports big industry and wants major businesses involved with coal and oil to be uninterrupted by government regulations. In attempt to dismantle the EPA Trump has relocating many EPA officials to roles where they have less of an impact on environment policy . Trump’s administration hopes that these actions will encourage these officials who do not have similar viewpoints on the environment to quit. After taking office President Trump appointed Scott Pruitt to head of the EPA.
Four months into this position, Pruitt has undone, delayed, or blocked more than thirty environmental rules making it the largest rollback ever on environmental policy . It is clear from these actions that Trump and Pruitt have very similar viewpoints on environmental policy. Pruitt has also worked hard to undo as much of Obama’s climate change regulations as possible . Trump values stimulating the economy in whatever ways possible. This includes disregarding the protection of the environment to allow big businesses to operate as unregulated as possible so they can generate more
revenue. Since taking office, President Trump has set out to deregulate many environmental policies set in place by the Obama administration. His actions have led many people to compare his environmental viewpoints to those of Ronald Reagan. Donald Trump’s environmental policy is very similar to Ronald Reagan’s. Both President’s believed in massive rollbacks to the EPA’s policies. This is mainly due to the fact both men believed in a free market economy and want big industry to have as little regulation as possible to increase their revenue. Reagan also wanted to cut spending within the EPA to increase defense spending. Trump is also a supporter of military spending but mainly wants to cut the EPA’s budget by twenty five percent to allocate money towards massive tax cuts for the American people. Trump and Reagan both believed and believe that stimulating the American economy needs to be done by letting big industry thrive with little to no regulation from the government.