Some of the policies enacted under the Trump administration will have lasting impacts on the environment far after the current president leaves office, some environmental policy experts told ABC News.
President Donald Trump has enacted a sweeping number of policies that could potentially harm the environment and disable the country’s ability to reach a net-zero emissions economy since taking office, these experts said.
The executive orders include a declaration of a national energy emergency, expanding the mining and use of coal in the U.S. and removing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement for the second time.
The policies stem from the idea of U.S. independence or “putting America first,” the president’s orders state.
“The United States must grow its economy and maintain jobs for its citizens while playing a leadership role in global efforts to protect the environment,” Trump wrote in an Inauguration Day executive order titled “Putting America First In International Environmental Agreements.”
The order continued, “In recent years, the United States has purported to join international agreements and initiatives that do not reflect our country’s values or our contributions to the pursuit of economic and environmental objectives.”
On March 6, the White House announced that deregulation efforts has saved more than $180 billion, about $2,100 per family of four, by halting proposed Biden-era regulations.
“Upon taking office, President Trump immediately blocked these proposed rules and has initiated an aggressive deregulatory agenda that requires substantial cuts in existing regulations for each new agency rule,” the White House said. “President Trump is committed to cutting senseless red tape that will lower costs, lead to higher growth, and usher America into its Golden Age.”
Some of these actions will be difficult to see through fruition, especially those focusing on increasing the production and use of fossil fuels as the rest of the world looks to convert their economies to run on clean energy, experts told ABC News.
However, the campaigns against wind, energy, batteries, electric vehicle charging and energy efficiency will put the U.S. on a slower path to bringing global warming under control, John Holdren, a professor of environmental science and policy and former science adviser to President Barack Obama, told ABC News.
“That’s going to cause enormous damage in itself,” Holdren said.
“We have the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we are going to use it,” Trump said during his inauguration speech in January. “We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top and export American energy all over the world. We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it.”
MORE: These are the biggest ‘anti-environment’ policies enacted in Trump’s 1st 100 days, according to experts
Environmental Protection Agency deregulation
Deregulation of the Environmental Protection Agency is among the Trump administration’s changes expected to have harmful impacts for decades to come, Holly Bender, chief program officer for the Sierra Club, an environmental nonprofit, told ABC News.
On March 12, the EPA announced sweeping moves to walk back environmental protections and eliminate a host of climate change regulations, described by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin as the “biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history.”
Among the 31 actions include rolling back emission regulations on coal, oil and gas production and reevaluating government findings that previously determined that greenhouse gas emissions heat the planet and are a threat to public health.
These actions are reversing policies that have “broad public support,” such as funding the replacement of lead pipes, reducing mercury pollution in air and water and rolling back protections for public lands, Bender said.
“This is the agency where they’re setting standards for toxic and hazardous air pollutants, like dioxin or mercury, for which there is no safe level of exposure,” Bender said.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021 invested billions in cleaning up legacy pollution, strengthening the country’s water infrastructure and increasing resources to help businesses reduce toxic pollutants, with a focus on underserved and overburdened communities.
In a statement to ABC News, the EPA said, “While the Biden EPA repeatedly attempted to usurp the Constitution and the rule of law to impose its ‘Green New Scam,’ the Trump EPA is laser-focused on achieving results for the American people while operating within the limits of the laws passed by Congress.”
“We believe protecting human health and the environment doesn’t have to come at the expense of creating jobs and Powering the Great American Comeback,” the EPA spokesperson said. “We can and will deliver on both. EPA has wasted no time advancing President Trump’s directive to deliver clean air, land, and water for all Americans – while restoring common-sense, accountability, and cooperative federalism to environmental policy. In lockstep with the President’s agenda, EPA is also helping to unleash American energy, pursue permitting reform, make America the AI capital of the world, and bring back American auto jobs.”
MORE: How the Trump administration’s policies will impact global decarbonization
Dismantling of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Staffing reductions at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration could have reverberating impacts on how meteorologists across the country forecast the weather, the experts who spoke to ABC warned.
NOAA and the National Weather Service, which is a part of NOAA, are responsible for both routine and extreme weather forecasting nationwide – tracking hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, tsunamis and other potentially life-threatening events
But some research laboratories, regional offices and satellite operations facilities have shuttered as a result of staffing cuts, the agency has announced in recent months.
Essential function such as satellite information, weather and its effect on airplane engine health, come from these offices, said Craig McLean, former NOAA director of research, during a news conference in March. The cuts will lead to significant consequences for weather forecasting accuracy, sea navigation, the fishing industry and air safety
Apart from forecasting, climate adaptation will be impacted too, Holdren said. The country’s ability to adapt to the damage caused by more extreme heat waves, flooding, drought, wildfires, hurricanes and sea level rise could be compromised as a result of staffing reductions within NOAA.
“The slowing of those adaptation efforts is going to increase the harm from those extremes associated with climate change well beyond the time that Trump is in office,” Holdren said.
A draft budget proposal by the Office of Management and Budget suggested a potential 27% reduction — about 27% — in NOAA’s funding for the 2026 fiscal year.
It’s unclear whether there will be sufficient staffing left at any number of regional forecast offices to continue 24/7 operations, with positions that usually staff the 122 NWS forecast offices, 13 River Forecast Centers, and two tsunami warning centers eliminated, said National Weather Service Employees Organization General Counsel Richard Hirn in March.
MORE: These are the impacts some scientists fear most from EPA deregulation
Firings at key scientific agencies
Thousands of positions at federal government agencies that perform crucial scientific research have been eliminated — including the EPA, NASA, NOAA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service — with the launching of the Department of Government Efficiency, an initiative by the Trump administration to cut federal spending and maximize government productivity.
The cuts extend widely across engineering and science and will result in a lack of scientific advances and international competitiveness stemming from the U.S., which will have lasting cultural and economic impacts as well, Holdren said.
“It’s the lifeblood of the innovation that over the years, since World War II, has given the United States not only the world’s strongest economy, but the most productive agriculture, the most robust environmental protection, the most capable military,” he said. “You can’t expect the private sector to replace these big cuts in fundamental research.”
Philanthropic organizations will do their best to fill in the gaps, but they don’t have enough funding and have other priorities that may take precedence, Holdren added.
Even if “a more sensible” administration follows, it will take years to rebuild the capabilities for fundamental search in universities and national laboratories — both from a recruitment and equipment standpoint, Holdren said. The U.S. will likely experience a weakened scientific and technological workforce as a result.
“We’re already seeing some of the most senior and talented people leaving the country and going elsewhere — going to Canada, going to France, going to China — where they perceive that they will be better able to pursue their skills and apply them to productive purposes,” Holdren said.
DOGE claims it has saved taxpayers a total of $170 billion as a result of the cuts, with the EPA ranking as No. 6 on the “Agency Efficiency Leaderboard,” which appears to list the Top 10 agencies that have saved the most money.
Environmental attorneys and activists have been gearing up to fight any policies the Trump administration enacts since the presidential election in November.
“We have the tools to fight,” Bender said.
Trump’s policies could impact the environment long after he leaves office, some experts say originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
