It’s been a dizzying 11 days since Donald Trump’s second term in the White House began. The president has issued a slew of executive orders and directives—ranging from cracking down on immigration to reducing the federal workforce.
Supporters seem pleased with the president’s priorities, but others express concern—including those worried about environmental policies.
Evan Feinauer has been riveted by the flurry of activity in the first weeks of the Trump administration. “There are a couple of big federal actions that most folks are expecting to see in the relatively near term that are going to affect our waters,” Feinauer says.
Feinauer is a staff attorney for Clean Wisconsin, a nonprofit that advocates for breathable air, drinkable water, and healthy ecosystems. He anticipates Trump will dismantle an important policy adopted during the Biden administration.
It calls for replacing old lead pipes that deliver municipal drinking water to homes.
"Biden said these lead service lines that are the source of lead in drinking water, we gotta get rid of them. This was called the Lead and Copper Rules Improvement. The regulation went into effect last year,” Feinauer says.
The regulation mandated all pipes be replaced in 10 years.
“Most people expect that, in relatively short order, the Trump EPA will try to get rid of that regulation. They’re going to try to repeal it,” Feinauer says.
Feinauer says even if the measure is repealed, the prognosis for lead pipe replacements is not completely bleak. That’s because funds have already been allocated to set the program in motion.
“There was money in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for states and for local governments to do this work regardless of whether or not there was a mandate to do it. A lot of that money has gone out the door, and the money that hasn’t, I think, is a little more insulated from politics since infrastructure can be more bipartisan in certain instances. So we’re hoping in Wisconsin we’re going to keep making progress,” he says.
Feinauer is less optimistic about inroads to address forever chemicals—also known as PFAS—in drinking water.
“The Biden administration put out a good, health-protective standard for basically how much PFAS you could have in your drinking water before it violates the Safe Drinking Water Act. And I think folks are very reasonably worried that we could be looking at a rollback of that regulation,” Feinauer says.
One of the first laws written to protect the environment was the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. It requires federal agencies to explore potential environmental impacts of large projects.
Trump’s Unleashing American Energy executive order calls for repealing elements of that act in order to expedite and simplify the permitting process.
Feinauer fears consideration of impacts to the environment will fall by the wayside under the president’s plan to “unleash America’s affordable and reliable energy and natural resources.”
“Ignoring environmental impacts so that we can build, build, build,” Feinauer says.
Another Clean Wisconsin staff attorney, Brett Korte, monitors the renewable energy scene. Some Trump observers predict the president will pull back funding for solar and wind projects. But for now, Korte thinks renewable energy projects in Wisconsin are not in jeopardy.
“Here in Wisconsin, if a wind developer or a solar developer wants to build a project, the permits that they have to apply for are with the state. They’re with our DNR, and they’re with our Public Service Commission. So the federal action won’t really affect that. The tax credits and the other incentives in the IRA that are helping spur and drive that industry here in Wisconsin are, for the time being, safe without action from Congress,” Korte says.
Korte’s immediate concern is what he describes as the Trump administration’s attack on environmental justice in federal decision-making. Trump signed an executive order calling for the termination of discrimination related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the federal workforce and spending.
“We’ve yet to see what that’s going to mean on the ground when decisions are being made. But it’s a disheartening sign that an executive order making federal agencies think about the way that their decisions impact the most vulnerable communities is now off the books,” Korte says
He thinks we, as a country, are living in a critical moment in time because of climate change.
“If we don’t get it right, we’re going to be in big, big, big trouble,” Korte says.
He’d like to think we can get it right.
Supporters of the president think Trump is on the right track, including Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis. In a newsletter earlier this week, Johnson said the "Golden Age has begun," adding, "It is time to not only make America great again, but make it even better after four years of disastrous Democratic policies."
