Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Letters to the Editor:

There’s hope on environment

Reading Paul Krugman’s article “Pruitt-Trump making America polluted again,” (Sept. 2, the Sun) about Scott Pruitt’s and President Donald Trump’s policy of cutting the EPA’s budget and reversing many of our environmental regulations, was extremely upsetting.

Krugman makes excellent points about how much those regulations have been successful in cleaning up our air, water and land from waste and industrial pollution. It is frustrating to have an administration so backward and deliberately, willfully ignorant in seeing how working with protecting the environment makes the most economic sense.

These regulations are not a “burden” on profitability, as Trump has repeatedly stated. In fact, studies have already shown that the clean energy industry creates more jobs than the fossil fuel industry.

The upside is many members of Congress support green industry and are actively working in a bipartisan effort toward reduction of carbon-dioxide levels in our atmosphere. CO2, a byproduct of burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, is the primary greenhouse gas causing the warming of our planet.

A fine illustration of this is the House Climate Solutions Caucus, started in February 2016 by two Florida representatives, Republican Carlos Curbelo and Democrat Ted Deutch. Its goal is to generate bipartisan initiatives and legislative pursuits to fight climate change. The caucus has attracted more than 50 members, equally divided between Republicans and Democrats.

What ensures its bipartisan approach is that in order for a member to join, he or she must find a representative of the opposite party to join. This ensures that the legislation put forward is truly has bipartisan support and will most likely pass.

As dire as Krugman’s article is, there is hope that enough momentum toward positive environmental policy has been built that we as a nation can mitigate much of the damage that this administration and its policies will try to inflict on our communities and wild places.

I am grateful to live in a state that understands we must protect our air, water and land, and that economic growth and environmental protections do not have to be at odds with each other.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy