Trump vs. Biden: The EPA
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In a briefing on July 8, 2019, President Trump stated the United States has the cleanest air on record, has air pollution that is six times lower than average, and is the global leader for access to clean drinking water.
The Environmental Performance Index ranked the United States 10th on air quality, and while EPA’s own research shows a steady decline in air pollutants in the past thirty years, Trump’s deregulation will likely have the opposite effect. The EPI also ranks the U.S. 29th on water quality.
More than 97 percent of peer-reviewed scientific journals have come to the consensus that humans are at least in part responsible for recent climate change trends and that extreme winters do not refute the fact that the earth is warming.
President Trump repealed and replaced Obama-era emissions rules for power plants and vehicles, weakened protections for more than half the nation's wetlands, and withdrew the legal justification for restricting mercury emissions from power plants. At the same time, the Interior Department has worked to open up more land for oil and gas leasing by cutting back protected areas and limiting wildlife protections.
The Case for Trump
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue states, “President Trump is restoring the rule of law and empowering Americans by removing undue burdens and strangling regulations from the backs of our productive farmers, ranchers, and rural land-owners… With reforms and deregulation, Americans once again have the freedom to innovate, create, and grow.”
While Joe Biden has made campaign promises to address the climate emergency by ensuring the U.S. moves towards a 100% clean energy economy by 2050 and invest over $1.7 trillion in the next decade, he has stated he will not ban fracking, and many argue the Obama administration didn’t adequately address the issue. Obama’s EPA failed to pass policies on greenhouse gas emissions and his clean power plan in 2015 lead to multiple lawsuits.
For further reading...
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2018/aug/23/donald-trump/united-states-not-cleanest-country/
https://www.politifact.com/article/2017/jun/05/does-donald-trump-believe-man-made-climate-change/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earthtalks-global-warming-harsher-winter/
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/barack-obama-climate-legacy_n_586fe435e4b02b5f8588abcc
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/01/16/obamas-climate-legacy-a-battle-of-attrition-at-home/