The current environmental crisis has come down to choosing a side. Should you prioritize clean air, healthy waterways, and the natural world we live in and enjoy every day? Or, should you prioritize our oil and gas companies’ drive to maintain affordable energy and well-paying jobs? As both are necessary, there must be a balance.
It is no question that humans need to work towards a compromise between what’s best for the environment and what’s best for the economy. Both sides certainly have positive and negative effects with far-reaching impacts, making this matter difficult to digest and to solve.
“A loss of [environmental] protection can lead to too much destruction and we can never get some things back,” environmental science teacher Mr. Rick Dreves said. “It is better to protect and preserve before losing items we can never get back.”
This concern is currently being contested as a hot topic every day on Washington D.C.’s Capitol Hill. Republicans, specifically President Donald J. Trump, lean toward the promotion of oil and gas production at the expense of environmental protection. In fact, President Trump recently signed an executive order to create a National Energy Dominance Council. He directed this council to increase domestic oil and gas production, thus limiting our country’s reliance on imported oil from other countries.
Facilitating cooperation between the federal government and domestic energy partners, the National Energy Dominance Council works to maintain policy consistency. The council will consult various public and private stakeholders, ensuring the expansion of energy production and removing any cost barriers.
The process of oil and gas production includes exploring, drilling, extracting, processing, storing, transporting, refining, and finally distributing these materials. This is a long and very environmentally harmful process; however, oil and gas have become essential to living our lives comfortably.
In creating the National Energy Dominance Council, the Trump Administration is laying off Environment Protection Agency (EPA) workers, along with other environmentally-focused federal employees. In doing this, the administration is focusing on cutting costs and reducing the overall size of the government workforce. According to Springer Nature, President Trump reasons that a large number of workers are unnecessary for our government to function properly, asserting that the pollution-related EPA policies and regulations are overly strict, thus interfering with big business. Because of this, environmental scientists fear losing their jobs every day.
Despite this, the EPA sets out to accomplish their mission of developing and enforcing regulations, giving grants, studying environmental issues, sponsoring partnerships, educating others on the environment, and publishing information to educate the public.
Democratic politicians tend to favor environmental protection over economic factors. They prioritize clean energy—energy that comes from renewable, zero-emission sources which do not pollute the atmosphere. Examples of this include solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal, along with the increasing use of electric vehicles (EVs) rather than traditional gas powered vehicles.
Former President Joe Biden pushed to create laws promoting this clean energy concept. While in office, Biden set a goal to make half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2030 be electric. He also dedicated funding to electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula.
Yet shortly after returning to office, President Trump signed an executive order promising to eliminate what he labels as “The Electric Vehicle Mandate.” The order is consistent with the pledges he made on the campaign trail to end the “preposterous” focus on EVs, established by democrats.
For those who aren’t knee-deep into matters concerning environmental laws, this EV debate is just one example of many of the rapid changes occurring in the context of the environment and politics.
“Although I try to stay on top of current environmental laws and regulations, I feel like these laws and regulations are not showcased to the public,” said senior Mason Voght, Ecology Club president. “I think that we need to make these regulations known nationwide. Whether it be through the news or social media, everyone should be aware of regulations and laws that are put in place to keep our earth healthy.”