It’s one step forward, two steps back for the environment this Earth Day.
The step forward is President Biden’s reinstatement of parts of the National Environmental Policy Act dumped by former President Trump. Federal agencies must once again consider greenhouse-gas emissions for proposed projects like pipelines and roadways, and local communities unduly impacted by such projects will have a stronger voice at the bargaining table.
The step back is the decision by Biden to once again allow the federal government to drill for oil and gas on public lands, violating a signature campaign promise.
Neither decision is as big a deal as it first appears, which may provide some political cover from fallout on both sides of the aisle.
Restoring parts of the National Environmental Policy Act will have little immediate effect because “the Biden administration had already been weighing the climate change impacts of proposed projects,” according to a New York Times story. The long-range implications are for future administrations, which must abide by the same set of rules.
Unfortunately, nothing can stop a future president from doing just what Trump did by gutting parts of a policy he disagreed with, or what Biden did by restoring it. So the announcement effectively changes nothing in the short term and is poised to have a dubious impact in the long term, depending on which way the political winds blow. But it’s good political theater for Earth Day.
The drilling decision, too, is something less than it first appears, neither a slam-dunk win for fossil-fuel advocates nor a sky-is-falling moment for environmentalists. This is because it will be years before such drilling actually commences, and because the new permits come with a steep increase in the royalties that drilling companies pay to the federal government.
Optimists might say the two announcements give Biden a chance to demonstrate moderation and compromise, components sorely lacking in politics today. Pessimists might note that the twin decisions give everybody something to be mad about.
Without a doubt, the high price of gasoline, coupled with ongoing inflation, have many Americans cranky about their budgets, with some facing hard, no-win decisions as a result. Biden is trying to balance his commitment to fighting climate change with the immediate reality of Americans being more worried about finances than saving the environment.
Coincidentally, as these monetary tensions are bandied about at dinner tables and boardrooms across the country, climate scientists have been protesting in record numbers. More than 1,000 such specialists from 25 different countries, calling themselves the Scientist Rebellion, spoke out earlier this month after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report. It warned of more pronounced climate effects if greenhouse-gas emissions aren’t cut in the next three years.
The letter from the Scientist Rebellion is harrowing reading. While it has become reflexive in some quarters to dismiss such warnings as the same white noise that has been playing for decades, the letter demonstrates that many of these predictions, sadly, have come true. Among them are a large decrease in animal populations, an increase in weather extremes, and imminent harm to human habitats and food supplies.
At some point, politicians the world over, at every level, must give priority to the environment, keeping it at the forefront of proactive change no matter which party or regime is in power.
Fighting climate change and decreasing pollution should not be viewed as competing with other pressing concerns. Indeed, a decrease in fossil-fuel usage and more stringent standards for clean air and water are part of the solution to other problems. Abandoning or deemphasizing them – the latter appearing to be the current Biden strategy – when they become politically inconvenient is unacceptable.
Americans should hold their elected officials accountable for their climate promises and press them for long-term policy solutions. Implementation should then be held inviolate, part of a legacy we leave to future generations, who will either prosper or fall based on decisions we make today.
It’s not the Earth we should be worried about this Earth Day, but the people on it. The planet will keep on keeping on. Whether it will do so in a way conducive to human life is the bigger question.
Reach Chris at chris.schillig@yahoo.com. On Twitter: @cschillig.
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