In Our View: Stand Fast on Environment

In proclaiming that Washington will continue to pursue a clean energy initiative and do what it can to combat climate change, Gov. Jay Inslee said recently that the state will not be deterred by the “foolishness” coming from the White House. While we generally prefer more diplomatic language and remain firmly resolved to give the Trump administration a chance to demonstrate that it can govern effectively, foolishness just might be the appropriate word when it comes to environmental policy.

We know, we know, some people have been quick to assign many actions and statements from the young administration to the bin of foolishness. But for those of us in Washington, environmental policy is of particular concern. Our state routinely earns high marks for being among the “greenest” in the union, a point of pride born of an indelible economic and cultural link to the environment.

So, when President Donald Trump claims, “I’m a very big person on the environment” and boasts that he has “received awards on the environment,” consider us skeptical. We tend to be wary of an administration that already has boasted of employing “alternative facts,” so it is not surprising that The Washington Post’s fact-checking arm awarded four Pinocchios to Trump’s claim of winning environmental awards — its highest, er, lowest honor.

Thus far, Trump has not positioned himself to add any environmental awards to his mantel. During the presidential campaign, he routinely called climate change a hoax perpetrated by China. He then selected Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency, an agency Pruitt has routinely criticized and has filed suit against on 13 occasions. Democrats on the Senate panel considering Pruitt’s nomination boycotted that panel’s vote, and Republicans unanimously agreed to move the nomination to the full Senate.

In the first few days of Trump’s presidency, a gag order was placed upon social media outlets for the National Park Service, apparently in an effort to prevent employees from sharing fact facts about climate change that might conflict with the administration’s alternative facts. And a temporary freeze was placed upon EPA contract approvals and grant awards.

These are actions that serve as a disturbing harbinger of what might be to come in Trump’s environmental policy. Yet, we recognize that it is possible to balance economic needs with environmental concerns. As Pruitt told the Senate panel during his hearing, “We must reject as a nation the false paradigm that if you’re pro-energy, you’re anti-environment or if you’re pro-environment, you’re anti-energy.” There is much truth in that, but Pruitt’s record and Trump’s rhetoric suggest that the administration will be quick to err on the side of energy interests at the expense of the environment. The president has called for more development on public lands and has said he would like to open national parks to oil drilling.

That should be anathema for anybody who embraces the wonderment of this nation’s natural spaces and for anybody who understands that once those spaces are defiled, they are defiled forever.

Therefore, it is essential for Inslee and for others who value the environment to continue pressing the issue. Surveys of climate scientists have found that 97 percent of experts believe the earth is warming and that such warming is, indeed, exacerbated by human activity — and those surveys have nothing to do with China. Any claim to the contrary is little more than foolishness.