President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday seeking to “Make America Beautiful Again,” establishing a council tasked with conserving public lands, protecting wildlife populations and ensuring clean drinking water while remaining silent on climate change.
For an administration that has largely focused on rolling back climate regulations and boosting the oil industry, the order is a first nod at outlining a cohesive environmental policy. The move is the culmination of a months-long campaign by Benji Backer, a 27-year-old self-described conservative environmentalist, who brought a draft of the order to the White House in February.
But many environmental groups questioned the administration’s commitment to environmental protection.
“Given the all-out assault on clean water, public lands and wildlife protection from the Trump administration, it’s hard not to be skeptical of anything it announces,” said Andrew Wetzler, senior vice president for nature at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group, in a statement.
On his way to the Iowa State Fair on Thursday, Trump signed a modified version of the order that the activist, who heads a group called Nature Is Nonpartisan, first drafted. The document does not mention climate change, which many leading scientists consider the biggest threat to the environment, or identify measures to curb planet-warming pollution.
Still, the order represents a rare instance of Trump elevating environmental priorities. The president spent his first term weakening or wiping out more than 125 environmental rules and policies, and in his second term, the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed dismantling dozens of regulations finalized under President Joe Biden.
