The Donald Trump Presidential Administration has been engaged in a decisive rollback of environmental regulations ever since taking office on 2025, throwing its political support entirely behind industry and coil, oil, and natural gas companies. This Republican administration also pulled America out of the Paris Climate Agreement and its voluntary agreements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, pollution arising from the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas, the primary drivers of global warming. For one, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency just repealed the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, allowing coal-fired power plants to emit more Mercury and other toxic air pollution, according to the environmental group the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
Trump’s EPA also announced it plans to rollback regulations on PFAS ‘forever’ chemicals in drinking water as well as reversing the Biden EPA’s strengthened regulations aimed at curbing pollution from cars and trucks and raising their mandated fuel economy.
Trump’s EPA also rolled back Biden-era regulations on wastewater discharge standards for coal-fired power plants, threatening the water quality
of rivers and streams.
These are just a few examples of this outrageous, and what
should be very unpopular, environmental protection rollback by the Trump
administration.
This radical Republican turn against environmental quality
and efforts to limit global warming, all in the name of supporting industry, is
happening when the majority of Americans want greater protection of the environment by their government: According to a 2026 Gallup poll. 63% of
respondents think the government is not doing enough to protect the
environment, and most believe environmental protection should be prioritized
over economic growth (58%) and development of U.S. energy sources (57%).
Meanwhile 43% of respondents think that America’s
environmental quality is only “fair” while 20% think it is “poor”. 66% of respondents think America’s
environmental quality is “getting worse.”
Another poll, a 2023-2024 Pew Research Center survey found
that 60% of respondents think stricter environmental laws and regulations are worth the cost.
This sentiment was more popular among Democrats (82%) than
Republicans (39%).
A majority of respondents in the Pew poll think the U.S.
Government is doing “too little” to protect Air and Water quality. 56% think
the U.S. Government is not doing enough to reduce the effects of global climate
change.
So why would Americans elect a pro-industry, pro-fossil fuel
Republican to the Presidency who would roll back environmental regulations and
end the environmental protection progress made under the Biden
Administration?
Democrats have not been effectively communicating, in their
campaigns for elected office and while in office, their strong support for
proper environmental regulations, such as restrictions on harmful chemical
pollution and its release into our air and waterways. And Democrats have not
been telling the American people what our country’s national and international obligation
should be, to reduce the greenhouse gas pollution causing global warming.
Political donations by the fossil fuel industry in the 2024
Presidential election do not explain President Trump’s obsession with throwing
his wholehearted support to encouraging more oil and gas drilling, and a return
to burning coal, and his hostility to renewable energy. According to OpenSecrets, the oil and gas industry gave about $25 million to Trump’s campaign committee and affiliated Super PACs. This pales in comparison to the $246
million in contributions given by the Securities and Investment sector.
Though the oil and gas industry in 2024 did donate overwhelmingly to Republican members of Congress over Democrats, which does
explain to some extent the Congressional Republican support for fossil fuel
development.
The anti-environment turn by the Trump Administration and
its fellow Republicans in Congress stands in sharp contrast to the
pro-environment policies of the prior Joe Biden Presidential Administration. President
Biden, who arranged for the U.S. to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, also
signed the legislation called The Inflation Reduction Act which invested roughly $369 billion in climate and clean energy initiatives, including incentives for
solar and wind power and tax credits for purchasing an electric vehicle.
President Biden also signed the Infrastructure bill, which invested nationally in Electric Vehicle charging stations and public transit. And President Biden protected over 42 million acres of lands and waters, including establishing new national monuments like Chuckwalla and Sáttítla Highlands in California, his administration protected 28 million acres of public lands in Alaska from new oil and gas drilling and withdrew 625 million of acres of coastlines from future oil and gas leasing. President Biden’s EPA also augmented the regulation of pollution emissions by cars and trucks and increased the mandated fuel economy on cars and trucks, which the Trump administration reversed.
Another 2026 Gallup poll found considerable support in the U.S. for putting more emphasis on solar power (66%) and wind power (55%) renewable energy development, while only 34% thought we should put more
emphasis on oil development, 42% on natural gas, and only 23% on coal. 46% of
respondents think we should put more emphasis on nuclear power.
These polling numbers suggest that the radical pro-fossil
fuel industry (and hostility to renewable energy) turn of President Trump and
his fellow Congressional Republicans is very out of sync with American public
opinion. Democrats should take away from these polls that they should
incorporate more advocacy, in their political campaigns and while serving in
office, on protecting air and water quality and reducing pollution, encouraging
solar and wind power renewable energy development, as well as specifically encouraging
efforts to reduce the greenhouse gas pollution that causes global warming.
Democrats should also call for America’s rejoining of the Paris Climate
Agreement and push for an end to the government’s encouragement of more extraction
of oil, coal, and natural gas.
You might think from the news media that the environment
issue is primarily about climate change these days – but the public environment
debate isn’t just about global warming, the climate change that results from it,
and the greenhouse gas pollution that is causing it, as important as those are.
Environmental quality as a political issue is largely about our air quality,
the water quality of our lakes, rivers, and streams and the water sources that
are piped into our homes, safeguarding our lands from unnecessary exploitation and
the resulting pollution by the fossil fuel and mining industries, the need to
reduce pollution, as well as protecting wild animals and their habitats (According
to the Pew poll, 55% of respondents support protecting animals and their
habitats).
Democrats should be trying to capitalize on public support
for these issues, differentiating themselves from Republicans on the issue of
environmental quality, instead of running away from them. Democrats should be
making an effort to shape the public debate around environmental quality. President
Trump and some Congressional Republicans have no problem being excessively
vocal in their support for oil, natural gas, and coal – Democrats should be
fearless in their vocal support for improving air and water quality, reducing
pollution with more stringent EPA regulations, and for government incentives to
generate more power from clean renewable energy sources – elevating
environmental protection to its appropriate status as a key political issue. A
majority of Americans will support it. And by taking a strong and vocal
leadership role on this issue, Democrats could also sway public opinion, increasing
the number of Americans who think we need to reduce pollution, embrace
renewable energy sources, and prioritize the quality of our air and water.
David Fine
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