Washington, DC -- Today, Donald Trump will reportedly sign an executive order rolling back an Obama-era policy that ensured all federal infrastructure investments in flood-prone areas be built to withstand the stronger storms and rising seas fueled by the climate crisis. FEMA estimates that flooding has caused $260 billion of damage over the last 35 years.
In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune released the following statement:
“With this directive, Donald Trump is actively wasting taxpayer dollars, endangering schools and hospitals, and threatening the lives of people around the country for no other reason than his apparent contempt for the public and his commitment to the agenda of corporate polluters. This is climate science denial at its most dangerous, as Trump is putting vulnerable communities, federal employees, and families at risk by throwing out any guarantee that our infrastructure will be safe. Trump decries our failing and crumbling infrastructure, but rather than continue policy that would fix some of the problems, he’s decided to pour taxpayer dollars into the rising seas.
“Apparently, as he looked down from his penthouse at the schools, hospitals, and infrastructure ravaged by Hurricane Sandy -- just like the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina and other superstorms before it -- he concluded that not only is there no reason to act to prepare for flooding, but that he would actively seek to make matters worse. Trump made it clear that he recognizes the threat of sea-level rise when he sought to construct a wall protecting his golf course in Scotland. Unfortunately, this president doesn’t value American lives, taxpayer dollars, and our communities as much as he does 18 holes. In reality, it was never ‘America first,’ it was ’Trump first.’”
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