We’re ready to protect our southern environment, again
We are at a crossroads. With another Trump administration upon us, the future of our environment — and the health of our communities — hangs in the balance.
But we’re not backing down. We’re ready to fight harder than ever to defend the South’s natural resources and the people who depend on them.
During the first Trump presidency, the administration did everything in its power to dismantle our bedrock environmental laws and regulations. In four years, they rolled back more than 110 environmental laws and regulations, harming our communities, stalling climate action, and damaging the wildlife and wild places that make our region so unique.
There is little doubt that this administration will once again push to peel back these protections, putting the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the places we love at risk.
But here’s the good news: We’ve been here before — and we’ve won.
During the last Trump administration, we achieved some of our most significant victories. We secured landmark coal ash cleanups, advanced state-level climate action, boosted solar growth, halted offshore drilling, and defeated the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
These wins weren’t easy, but they proved one thing: when we come together, we can protect our Southern environment.
We’re ready for the hard fight ahead to protect the South’s water, air, wildlife, and communities, while keeping the momentum on the progress we’ve made.
Geoff Gisler, Program Director
Now, we’re ready to do it again. We will face even greater challenges from an administration that learned from its first term and is promising an even more aggressive anti-environmental agenda — but we are more powerful than ever and are prepared for what’s ahead.
We’re ready. Be part of the fight ahead.
Here’s what’s at stake for the South, and how we’re ready to fight back.
The air we breathe and the water we drink
Our communities depend on clean air and water. We work alongside community partners on the ground to fight local polluters and have made huge strides at the federal level that led to the first ever national regulations on toxic forever chemicals.
The previous Trump administration made every attempt to walk back longstanding air and water protections, and they’ve indicated they will renew these attacks over the next four years.
SELC is ready to:
- Protect against forever chemicals in our water by challenging any efforts to repeal PFAS drinking water standards.
- Fight efforts to gut protections for waterways and wetlands under the Clean Water Act and other longstanding federal laws.
- Defend existing laws that protect against air and water pollution from fossil fuel-generated energy, including Greenhouse Gas Standards, Mercury Air and Toxics Standards, and water pollution limits for power plants.
Our clean energy future
We need to transform our energy system to address the climate crisis. The incoming President has already vowed to dismantle power plant regulations, opening the floodgates for fossil fuel-driven pollution across our region.
SELC is ready to:
- Stop the massive methane gas buildout across the South, including the defense of existing safeguards on methane gas infrastructure.
- Champion transmission reform to get more clean energy onto the grid as quickly as possible.
- Continue to promote offshore wind and stop offshore drilling from coming to the Southeastern coast.
Environmental justice for all
While we will all be impacted by this upheaval, low wealth and communities of color will bear the brunt of these environmental attacks.
We cannot solve the environmental problems of the South unless we solve them for everyone.
Chandra Taylor-Sawyer, leader of selc’s environmental justice initiative
SELC is ready to:
- Protect promised environmental justice funding to communities that are overburdened by environmental pollution.
- Defend bedrock environmental protection laws and regulations:
- National Environmental Policy Act: the nation’s oldest federal environmental law that allows for public input on government decisions and gives a voice to communities that have long suffered environmental injustices.
- Civil Rights Act of 1964 disparate impact provisions, which prohibits discrimination in environmental permitting decisions by federal aid recipients.
The wildlife and wild lands we love
Protecting our Southern forests and wetlands and the wildlife that depend on them has never been more important.
Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp, one of the largest remaining intact freshwater ecosystems in the world, is threatened by a strip mine due to weakened wetlands protections under the previous Trump administration.
SELC is ready to:
- Protect the incredible wildlife and public lands of the South by defending existing laws such as the Endangered Species Act, Roadless Rule, and the America the Beautiful Initiative that aims to protect 30% of our lands and water by 2030.
- Challenge bad logging projects across the South and continue our litigation to stop arbitrary federal government timber targets that are driving logging across the nation.
- Stop the biomass industry from receiving tax credits intended for clean energy projects, which will fuel an industry that’s polluting communities, logging Southern forests, and worsening climate change.
Climate progress across the South
With record-breaking temperatures and extreme weather events like Hurricane Helene hitting our region, the need for climate action is more urgent than ever.
With historic federal funding to advance clean energy, climate adaptation projects, and more sustainable transportation, the South is tackling the causes and impacts of climate change and creating stronger communities and more jobs in the process.
SELC is ready to:
- Ensure federal climate funding continues coming into Southern communities, as our region has already been awarded nearly $20 billion to tackle climate pollution, spur clean energy economic growth, and prepare our communities for climate impacts.
- Work with mayors, municipalities, state governments, and businesses to advance policies on clean energy economic development, emergency preparedness, and resilience.
- Defend existing protections that are lowering tailpipe pollution, such as the vehicle emissions standards, electric vehicle tax credits, and rail and transit funding.
The path forward
The decisions made over the next four years will shape our environmental future for generations to come.
With nearly 40 years of place-based experience we’re ready to stand alongside our local partners again in the courtroom, in the halls of government, and in our communities.
Now is the time to protect the South — together.