Environmental groups vowing to fight Trump climate actions
CHICAGO — Environmental groups that have hired extra lawyers in recent months are prepared to go to court to fight a sweeping executive order from President Donald Trump that eliminates many restrictions on fossil fuel production and would roll back his predecessor’s plans to curb global warming. But they said they’ll take their first battle to the court of public opinion.
Advocates said they plan to work together to mobilize a public backlash against an executive order signed by Trump on Tuesday that includes initiating a review of former President Barack Obama’s signature plan to restrict greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants and lifting a 14-month-old moratorium on new coal leases on federal lands. Trump, who has called global warming a “hoax” invented by the Chinese, said during his campaign that he would kill Obama’s climate plans and bring back coal jobs.
Even so, “this is not what most people elected Trump to do,” said David Goldston, director of government affairs at the Natural Resources Defence Council, who said Trump’s actions are short-sighted and won’t bring back the jobs he promised. “Poll after poll shows that the public supports climate action.”
A poll released in September found 71 per cent of Americans want the U.S. government to do something about global warming, including 6 per cent who think the government should act even though they are not sure that climate change is happening. That poll, which also found most Americans are willing to pay a little more each month to fight global warming, was conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago.