US President Donald Trump takes advantage of his Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro's status as a new bogeyman in the fight against global warming to continue to maintain his image as chief polluter.
The tenant of the White House has increased, in recent days, initiatives to unravel the measures in place in the United States to fight against greenhouse gas emissions. The latest feat of the Trump administration in this matter was to propose, Thursday, August 29, to abolish the rules to fight against leakage of methane into the atmosphere. This gas is nevertheless considered one of the main drivers of global warming with carbon dioxide.
But Donald Trump did not stop at this measure, which even caught the oil majors off guard. It also wants to end the protection afforded to the largest national forest in the United States, to facilitate the economic exploitation of protected areas, or to diminish the scope of the water pollution act. All this in less than a month.
More methane in the air. The decision by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to propose the end of a 2016 regulation to fight against methane leaks into the air has generated a near-universal outcry. The measure, dating from the Obama era, was indeed the subject of a broad consensus. The major oil groups, which were primarily concerned by this regulation, had welcomed the initiative of Donald Trump's predecessor.
Methane gas is particularly present in oil deposits that may escape into the air during the extraction of precious hydrocarbon. Once in the atmosphere, it captures the heat of the sun and thus contributes to global warming. It has the advantage over carbon dioxide to stay much shorter in the air (about ten years against more than a century for CO2), but its heating effect is nearly 80 times higher, according to EPA.
Limiting leakage during oil extraction - responsible for 31% of methane emissions into the air in the United States - is therefore seen as an effective way to combat a short-term rise in temperatures. In addition, captured methane can be converted into natural gas and then resold. An economic argument that "convinced Shell, Exxon and others to support regulation in 2016," says Time magazine.
But we must have the means to recycle methane ... and this is not the case for hundreds of smaller US oil groups, strongly opposed to this regulation. It's for them that the Trump administration decided to come back on it, assured the EPA. According to the agency, this decision would save them about $ 19 million a year.
The Tongass National Forest in danger. The largest US National Forest, covering 69,000 km² in Alaska, is considered the lung of the United States. As such, cutting wood has been largely banned for twenty years. But Donald Trump has asked his agriculture minister Sonny Perdue to put an end to this protection, the Washington Post reported on August 27.
A decision passed largely unnoticed as the media spotlight was focused on the fires that were ravaging at the same time the Amazon rainforest. Yet, if logging resumes in Alaska, the consequences could be felt on the global climate. The Tongass National Forest is indeed the largest temperate forest in the world, and it helps to capture large amounts of carbon dioxide. Without it, this gas could escape into the air, contributing to rising temperatures, especially over the Arctic Ocean, which could accelerate the ice melting process.
Donald Trump was inspired in his decision by Alaska Republican Governor Mike Dunleavy, who sent him a letter asking him to save what was left of the timber industry in his state. In fact, only 1% of the working population of Alaska working in this sector remains.
But for the opponents of the resumption of deforestation, the rescue of this handful of jobs is an economic nonsense. The Tongass forest ecosystem is vital to Alaska salmon, which provide work for 8% of the state's population. In addition, tourism, which is largely based on the landscapes of this vast forest, is also an important source of employment.
Animals in danger. The US government decided on August 12 to facilitate the procedure to remove animals from the list of threatened species, which is set by law.
The Endangered Species Act, adopted in 1972, allowed the United States to avoid the disappearance of symbols of American wildlife such as the Louisiana alligator or grizzly bear. The proposed reform of the law should also make the listing of new species more complicated, in particular by removing the possibility of referring to climate change as a threat to biodiversity. In fact, the risk of extinction should be assessed in the "foreseeable future". "This is a concept whose contours are left to the full appreciation of the government," said the New York Times.
What is the relationship with the fight against global warming? This reform is a boon for the mining sector: it is indeed forbidden to degrade the habitat of endangered species. If some animals disappear from the list, whole areas of the US territory will again be able to be exploited economically. For environmental protection organizations, it is to be expected that new mines will be added if this reform is adopted.
Pipelines rather than clean water? The Environmental Protection Agency proposed in early August to amend the "Clean Water Act" to formally "simplify the application of the text".
The proposed changes seem, in fact, very technical. Essentially, they plan to strengthen the powers of the federal authorities to approve infrastructure construction projects that could have an impact on water quality.
A centralization of powers that would be done to the detriment of the States. And that's where the rub is for environmental organizations. Since the beginning of Donald Trump's presidency, several pipeline projects have come up against opposition from local authorities who invoke the "Clean Water Act" to try to prevent pipelines from crossing their states.
But for the Trump administration these pipelines are essential to support the activity of US oil and gas groups, recalls the Wall Street Journal. And the good economic health of these highly polluting companies, supposed to ensure American energy independence, is one of the main priorities of the American president.