Southern Environmental Law Center is ready to protect our Southern environment, again, under second Trump administration

WASHINGTON – Following the re-election of Donald Trump as president, the country is at a crossroads, with the future of our environment—and the health of Southern communities—hanging in the balance. But the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) is ready to protect the South’s natural resources and the people who depend on them. 

DJ Gerken, SELC Executive Director, said, “The Trump administration’s coming onslaught on the environment will likely be relentless, but we’re ready to defend our environment and the laws that protect it— in the courtroom, in the halls of government, and in our communities.”

During the first Trump presidency, the administration did everything in its power to dismantle bedrock environmental laws and regulations. In four years, they attempted to roll back over 110 environmental laws and regulations, harming our communities, stalling climate action, and damaging the wildlife and wild places that make our region so unique. The Trump administration has indicated an even more aggressive anti-environmental agenda ahead.  

But SELC had critical successes upholding environmental protections during the first Trump administration, and the organization is prepared to do it again.  

Geoff Gisler, Program Director for SELC, said, “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.” 

SELC priorities for the second Trump Administration: 

• Defend bedrock environmental laws like the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act, and 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.   

• Ensure federal climate funding continues coming into Southern communities, as our region has already been awarded nearly $20 billion to tackle climate change causing-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.  

• Protect promised environmental justice funding to communities that are overburdened by environmental pollution.  

• 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.  

• 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 Southern coast.    

• 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.  

• Protect against any efforts to undo protections against forever chemicals in our water.

• Fight efforts to gut protections for waterways and wetlands under the Clean Water Act and other longstanding federal laws.  

• Defend existing protections that are lowering transportation pollution, such as the vehicle emissions standards, electric vehicle tax credits, and rail and transit funding.   

• Protect the wildlife and public lands of the South by defending existing laws such as the Endangered Species Act, Roadless Rule, national monument protections, 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 region.