It has been a rough six months for climate change advocates. The policy changes from former President Obama to the new Trump Administration have been like night and day. In an effort to help digest these changes, Temple Law School’s Sheller Center for Social Justice hosted its fourth lecture in a series titled Making Sense of the Legal Headlines, focusing this time on Climate Change and Federal Policy. Temple Law Professor Amy Sinden facilitated the lecture, with assistance from third year law student Alec Zucker. Professor Sinden and Mr. Zucker did an excellent job at summarizing the major concerns associated with the current climate change crisis while bringing the audience up to speed regarding recent policy changes from our nation’s capital.
With regard to the climate crisis, the bad news is that global temperatures are continuing to rise in the aggregate (2016 was the hottest year globally on record), and the change goes beyond warming. It includes both more extreme and more unpredictable weather patterns—droughts, floods, snow storms, heat waves, wildfires and so on. As such, we can anticipate impacts will continue to increase in urgency across the globe. The good news is that improved science and technology have better informed us about what can be done to slow warming and curb climate change impacts. Despite the fact that the damage to date cannot be undone, the methods through which emissions can be reduced are increasing in quality and quantity. This includes a greater availability of lower cost green technologies that reduce emissions with long-term costs savings for all users.
It is unfortunate, however, that these advancements must now overcome the positions and policies of the new administration. Trump not only doesn’t support policies aimed at combatting climate change but he is actively seeking to reverse promising climate policies of former President Obama. Most recently, he issued his Presidential Executive Order on Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth. This order revokes numerous existing Presidential actions, including orders, memoranda, and reports. It also repeals recent climate change guidance issued by the White House Council on Environmental Quality and further directs agencies to identify all policies that may burden energy production, such as the Clean Power Plan.
Beyond the order, Trump has appointed a new EPA Administrator who, regardless of the overwhelming science, publicly claims that carbon dioxide is not a primary contributor to climate change and is staffing the agency with likeminded climate deniers. The list of anti-climate change actions is so numerous that National Geographic is keeping a running list on how Trump is changing the environmental policy landscape, such as lifting the coal moratorium and giving the green light on the controversial Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines. In addition to major regulatory and staffing changes, Trump’s decisions also impact the day-to-day workings of federal agencies, including prohibiting Department of Energy officials from using the phrase “climate change” and preventing agencies from providing news updates through social media. Like I said, it has been a very rough six months.
For me, the related fears and frustrations are closer to home. I am graduating in a few short weeks and intend to utilize my law degree to promote the interests of a safe and healthy environment and climate. As a life-long resident of the Alaskan Arctic I have a greater consciousness of climate change impacts as our region is warming at over twice the rate of the global average. Warmer temperatures reduce our sea ice and permafrost levels. This increases vulnerability to more frequent storm surges and coastal erosion that, in turn, threaten our communities’ already limited infrastructure. These dangers are so imminent that some communities have already begun costly relocation efforts. These changes can also negatively impact traditional subsistence hunting practices by exposing hunters to more hazardous environmental conditions. My motivations in pursing a law degree were triggered by my desire to be able to more efficiently use the law to effectuate balanced and sustainable policy and positive change, both for my home region and for society at large.
Even with these changes I remain hopeful that progress can still continue, albeit at a slower rate, for the U.S. Although Trump is attempting drastic environmental policy changes, particularly in the context of climate change, there are important protections retained in our nation’s separation of powers that limit his power. The Constitution establishes it is for Congress to make the law and for the courts to interpret its meaning. The executive’s role is limited to the execution of the law. Fortunately for our climate and the environment, the law has safeguards to guide (or maybe in this case limit) executive actions. While some aspects of the recent executive order take effect immediately, others, such as the repeal of the Clean Power Plan, are subject to time-consuming administrative notice-and-comment requirements that must also withstand judicial review. Government actions must also comply with existing statutes, such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA, for example, provides an avenue for legal challenges to major federal actions that do not adequately consider climate change impacts, independent of executive directives to do otherwise.
There is also significant promise in the political movement to combat climate change, both globally and domestically. This includes international agreements to curb emissions, including the recent Paris Agreement. This also includes opportunities for new international leadership; since the election, China has already begun to emerge as a new global climate leader. Further, there is promise in the numerous examples within the public and private sector of localized initiatives to fight climate change. For example, Apple and Walmart responded to Trump’s changes by pledging to maintain their climate change commitments. Additionally, many localities across the nation are reducing emissions through improved efficiencies, from Los Angeles changing to LED street lights and synchronizing traffic lights, to green construction methodologies.
Even in the absence of appropriate leadership at the federal level, I am confident that enough people will endeavor to make informed climate policy decisions, including citizens, local government, and the private sector, that we will be able to successfully avert a climate catastrophe. I am confident in this as I am, and will continue to be, one of those people.
