Native Plant Conservation Campaign News: Trump administration and congressional attacks on science and the environment are worsening – updates on Science Censorship and Justice Kavanaugh.
Recent weeks have shown steady acceleration of the Trump administration’s campaigns to weaken environmental protections and scientific integrity in federal programs. A number of organizations and reports have recently released updated details on these initiatives:
The National Geographic Society maintains a
Running List of How President Trump is Changing Environmental Policy. The List was updated on October 1. The update notes, “Many of the actions [listed] roll back Obama-era policies that aimed to curb climate change and limit … pollution, while others threaten to limit federal funding for science and the environment.”
In addition, the
Ecological Society of America’s September 28 Policy News reported on recent federal efforts to reduce controls on methane emissions, open publicly owned lands to expanded oil, gas and mineral extraction, censor climate science, and other actions (see section on “Executive Branch”).
In August, Columbia University Law School released
updated results from their Silencing Science Tracker. The
Silencing Science Tracker, launched in January, records federal government actions since the November 2016 election to “silence science,” for example by restricting scientific research or the publication of scientific information. As of October 2, the federal government has attempted to censor, misrepresent, and otherwise stifle science over 160 times, according to the
Tracker.
According to the Tracker Update “the highest number of attacks have originated at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [which implements climate change policy], accounting for 26% of all entries. The U.S. Department of the Interior [which manages national wildlife refuges, endangered species among other things] is not far behind, accounting for 19% of all entries, followed by the Departments of Energy and Health and Human Services, which account for 9% each.”
Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court adds a forceful anti-conservation voice to that powerful body. Kavanaugh record is one of the strongest and most consistent in the judiciary in his opposition to efforts to fight climate change, and protect air, water, plants and wildlife.
As the New York Times stated in an article examining his climate law and policy positions, “Long before President Trump nominated him for the Supreme Court …, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh had already made a name for himself as an influential conservative critic of … environmental regulations.”
Kavanaugh’s record on plants, wildlife and endangered species is equally disturbing. As reported in
the Huffington Post, “
analysis of Kavanaugh’s 12-year record on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit finds that he has consistently ruled against measures to protect species. In the 18 significant, species-related suits that have come before Kavanaugh, he’s decided against protections in 17― or about 95 percent of the time.”
Read about Kavanaugh’s record on the climate and environment in the
NY Times.
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- a partnership of the Native Plant Conservation Campaign and the Endangered Species Coalition
