What do we do when things get difficult? We give up. Well, that’s been the response of the Trump administration to the dangers caused by climate change. As I write, the EPA is working on dismantling the CAFE clean car standards, which set targets to make our cars more fuel-efficient. The Administration argues in their environmental impact statement that because we’ve already locked in a certain amount of warming, car emissions aren’t worth worrying about.

Meanwhile, the IPCC just released a report demonstrating once again how devastating the impacts of unchecked climate change will be. They calculate that we would need to reduce transportation-related energy use 40 percent by 2050 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

It’s clear that to have a change of meeting such goals, we’re going to need regulations like the CAFE Clean Car Standards. Instead, the Administration is targeting not only fuel efficiency standards, but also major protections like the Clean Power Plan and New Source Performance Standards, which limit climate-changing pollution from power plants.

Rolling back these protections will accelerate climate change, leading to more extreme weather, a warmer Gulf of Maine, and reduced air quality. These changes will impact people across the state and undermine the natural resources that support our economy. The EPA is moving in the wrong direction. I urge Maine’s elected officials to act and to oppose this rollback at the local, state, and federal levels.

Nathaniel Blackford,

Brunswick