Photo: Rep. Lee Zeldin and then-President Donald Trump in 2018. Credit: Picryl/public domain
Tina Landis is the author of the book Climate Solutions Beyond Capitalism.
While another four years of Trump certainly won’t result in progress on climate change mitigation or environmental protections, how dire is it really looking? Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency appointee Lee Zeldin, a lawyer and former congressional representative, unsurprisingly has no background in environmental science and is blatantly unqualified for the position.
In his eight years in Congress, Zeldin consistently voted against measures to protect the environment or address climate change, receiving 14% on the national environmental scorecard from the League of Conservation Voters. Zeldin claims that regulations are what has driven American businesses overseas and he vows to pursue “energy dominance” and make the United States the “AI capital of the world.”
Anyone with a basic understanding of how capitalism works knows that U.S. corporations will always seek the highest profits and lowest operational costs — meaning cheap labor as well as weaker environmental regulations. These corporations that have outsourced production to less developed countries aren’t going to move their operations back to U.S. soil regardless of any continued weakening of the EPA, but will gladly support less stringent regulations at home to the detriment of our health.
Trump praised Zeldin saying that he “will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.”
Do a little research on air and water quality and health outcomes in the numerous “sacrifice zones” situated in low-income communities all across this country, and you will clearly see that the claim of the “cleanest air and water” is false even under current regulations.
As I wrote in my analysis of Project 2025, which Trump may try to enact when he takes office, the vision of Trump and the far right is to take us back to the days prior to environmental regulations, when pollution was widespread and so severe that the Cuyahoga River ignited due to the high levels of industrial waste in the water. This rampant pollution was what birthed the environmental movement of the 1960s, which forced concessions from the capitalist elites like the formation of the EPA and passage of the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act, among other gains.
Zeldin is just one part of the bigger vision of “Make America Great Again,” which in reality is a return to the days of unfettered capitalist plunder of the planet and exploitation of workers with no pesky regulations or rights standing in the way of profits.
We will likely see measures similar to those under the first Trump term when nearly 100 environmental regulations were rolled back, including lifting restrictions on power plants, vehicle emissions, extractive industries and toxic substances, opening up protected lands for drilling, and overturning laws protecting water and wildlife. While Trump is a particularly vile human, this trajectory of deregulation and chipping away at the gains that were won by the people’s movement began in the 1980s under Reagan with the first major cuts in EPA funding.
The trajectory of U.S. capitalism has continued to the right throughout both Democratic and Republican administrations with the Democrats adding a heavy dose of greenwashing and a little more wiggle room for some environmental funding to occur. Despite the Biden administration rhetoric on climate action and a few minor environmental gains in the Inflation Reduction Act, the United States has produced more crude oil than any nation at any time for the past six years in a row. Under Biden, more oil and gas drilling permits were approved than under Trump’s first term, along with the rolling back of key environmental protections in the Clean Water Act that put over 50% of U.S. wetlands at risk – an ecosystem type that acts as a key climate change mitigation tool, rich in biodiversity.
This is not to say that Trump won’t be more aggressively anti-environment in his second term. The point is that this is the trajectory of capitalism. The ruling elite and their representatives in the White House and Congress will always work toward paving the way for corporations to make the most profits and undo any gains won by the people through past struggle.
And then there’s California, which through the Clean Air Act, is allowed to set more stringent emissions standards than the federal level, as well as the state’s stricter vehicle emissions limits that won congressional approval in 1967. California regulations are often adopted across the country with 11 states and D.C. planning to follow California’s plan to phase out new gas-powered car sales. While Trump will likely try to cut federal funding and push through environmentally destructive projects on federal lands within California like during his first term, the state and environmental groups nationally are already preparing to fight any rollbacks in court. And any attempts to roll back the state’s vehicle emissions standards are expected to fail since vehicle manufacturers want to be able to sell in the large California market.
But we can’t rely on the courts or a few “lesser evil” politicians to save us because these days any “victories” against the push to the right are really just maintaining the status quo. We urgently need much more than just treading water. For our survival – and the survival of most other species — we must transform our relationship with the planet. Capitalism inherently is unsustainable through its requirement of ever expanding markets and ever increasing profits, which mean increasing exploitation of the environment and workers.
This is why we need a socialist system, which can prioritize the needs of people and the planet and pool humanity’s resources and knowledge to solve the crisis. We see the inaction of wealthy capitalist governments over the last three decades of UN Climate Conferences to deal with the crisis despite the warnings of thousands of scientists and communities around the globe. Capitalism cannot not truly solve the climate crisis because its very nature is the cause of the crisis.
We are in a crucial time. Climate change is rapidly accelerating and the window for action to avoid crucial tipping points is closing. The good news is that the people, when we are organized, have the power. We are sick of living paycheck-to-paycheck while the rich get richer.
The vast majority of us want transformational change and only the small number of ruling elite who control the system stand in our way.
With every major storm and wildfire more people see the the corrupt and callous nature of the system when no help comes for the communities devastated by climate chaos while there are bottomless coffers to fund war, genocide and corporate bailouts. The time to act is now. We can organize and take bold action to win socialism, or we can become demoralized and let the capitalists bring more suffering and division and drive us closer to extinction. We collectively determine our future. No one can predict tomorrow, but one thing is certain – we can win a better future if we are organized and fight for it.
