Earth Day 2024 arrives at a critical time for the future of our planet, our world, and our very lives. That’s because just six months and 13 days from now, on November 5, we face a choice that will determine whether we forge a clear path to protect the environment, or abandon any hope of solving the biggest environmental problems we face.
That choice is…whom to elect as Commander in Chief: the current president, Joe Biden, or the former president, Donald Trump?
On Earth Day 2024,
Why is Our Presidential Choice So Important?
Here are the top three reasons:
1.The Courts: The president appoints judges to the federal bench and justices to the Supreme Court. The judiciary is our last line of defense when it comes to upholding or strengthening laws like the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Environmental Protection Act. Who a president appoints to the judiciary will determine whether our environmental laws stay on the books or get weakened or declared unconstitutional altogether.
2.The Agencies and Departments: While Congress passes laws, it’s up to federal agencies to get the work done that the laws proscribe. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency ensures that the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts are enforced, and also educates the public and industry about how to save energy and stop climate change. The Department of the Interior oversees our National Parks and wild lands. The Department of Agriculture monitors food safety and pesticide use. The Department of Defense must consider the national security challenges climate change poses. A president appoints cabinet secretaries (the people who run these agencies and departments) who agree with his or her policy approach and point of view. A pro-environment president’s appointees will look for ways to uphold and strengthen our environmental laws. An anti-environment president’s appointees will work to undercut them.
3.National and Global Vision and Priorities: American presidents don’t just make policies; they’re the moral standard bearer for our country. They also play an important leadership role on the world stage. Protecting the environment is a moral issue as much as it is a political or legal one. A president who denigrates environmental protection, or refuses to cooperate with other world leaders on global issues like climate change, or who gives preferential treatment to polluters, empowers others to devalue the environment as well.
If you compare Biden’s and Trump’s actual records just in these three categories alone, the decision is a slam dunk. Joe Biden is the most pro-environment Commander-in-Chief in the history of the United States, and would be a far better president for the environment than Trump going forward.
During his one term in office, Donald Trump did everything he possibly could to roll back protections for the planet.
He appointed three pro-industry justices to the Supreme Court, creating a majority who helped strike down the Obama-era “Clean Power Plan” and its goal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by requiring them to shift towards renewable sources. The Court also hobbled EPA’s ability to protect wetlands, those marshy areas along our costs, lakes, rivers and streams that support many animals and plants, buffer communities from storms and floods, safeguard our water supply, and provide recreation opportunities for millions of people.
He appointed agency heads and department secretaries who gutted the environmental laws they should have defended. In four years, the Trump administration officially reversed over 100 environmental rules, especially those that protect communities from air and water pollution.
He resigned the U.S. from the Paris climate accords and continually denied that climate change is the national and global threat that it is, undermining America’s global credibility and sowing confusion about climate change among millions of Americans who instead need clear guidance on actions they can take to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden passed the Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. The act secures more than $50 billion for climate resilience and adaptation projects across the country. Biden established a National Climate Resilience Framework to help communities develop strategies to help them survive natural disasters like hurricanes and heat waves. And he’s provided millions of dollars to citizens in the form of tax credits and rebates to help people afford the cost of installing solar panels on their homes, purchasing more fuel-efficient, money-saving vehicles, and insulating and weatherizing their homes so they’ll use less energy over all.
There is simply no way to look at the records or listen to the rhetoric of these two presidential candidates and conclude that it does not matter whether you vote — and for whom.
It absolutely does.
