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Fort Lewis College student body as a whole, including issues that occur on the national level. For more information on national issues, specifically issues regarding the executive office, that pertain to Fort Lewis College students, check out our POTUS Watch here.

 

From his cabinet picks to his controversial travel ban, President Donald Trump has been the talk of the nation.  Although he has only been in office for about a month, Trump has managed to stay in the headlines with his executive orders and talk of future orders.

 

Michael Dichio, an assistant professor of political sciences at Fort Lewis College, thinks the resignation of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn has been a huge event.

 

“To have that person leave so abruptly and under auspices of forgetting to tell Vice President Mike Pence that he had conversations with the Russians about potential sanctions, or lack thereof, is really a staggering thing,” Dichio said.

 

This is leading to FBI investigations of whether or not some of Trump’s people were involved with Russian leaders, he said.  

 

As the chief advisor to the president on foreign and military policies, this has been a big hit to the United States’ trust in Trump, Dichio said.

 

“You only have so much social capital and eventually you lose faith and trust among the people,” Dichio said.  “Hopefully it is resolved soon. Otherwise I think the consequences will lead to some serious decline in trust and approval in our chief executive, which makes it hard to govern.”

 

Trump’s pick for the new Supreme Court justice was a prudent and intelligent one, Dichio said.

 

“Neil Gorsuch seems to hold pretty similar views on the constitution and constitutional issues as Antonin Scalia, so I don’t imagine it would have a real watershed change on Supreme Court politics,” he said.

 

It is interesting to see how the court system is handling the executive order banning people from seven countries from entering the United States, Dichio said.

 

“To see the executive order rebuffed by both the federal district judge and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is just a shining and powerful example of separation of power and checks and balances,” he said.

 

A topic of discussion in America right now is what is wrong with American politics and the flaws seen in it, Dichio said.

 

“A deep ideological division is really nothing new,” he said. “We still worry about dysfunction a lot today and the tenor of politics being more polarized, and I think that is a proper fear.”

 

It is compelling to watch the political system work out the way it was designed in terms of the separation of power, Dichio said.

 

Cody Ferguson, an assistant professor of history at FLC is concerned about the United States environmental policy under Trump.

 

“This is probably the most anti-environmental combination of a Republican presidency and Republican congress that I am familiar with,” he said.

 

Trump and his administration have been talking about wanting to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency, the Endangered Species Act, and the Clean Energy Act, Ferguson said.

 

Trump has signed an executive order that says there cannot be a new environmental regulation created without two being repealed.  

 

“I’m not sure how much power he has to do that, but the president has tremendous power to appoint heads of agencies who have to facilitate the agencies and the rulemaking process, and they can simply drag their feet,” Ferguson said.

 

Rick Perry, the head of the Department of Energy, wanted to dismantle the DoE during the election of 2012.

 

Scott Pruitt, who has been appointed the head of the EPA, in the past has represented the oil and gas industry, he said.  
 

Pruitt and Trump have been wanting to do away with the Clean Energy Act, which restricts emissions that power plants put out, Ferguson said.

 

“What we don’t usually talk about in that reducing the emissions from power plants, we also reduce sulfur dioxide, mercury, and nitrous oxide,” he said. “All the things that are in the air, they have a cumulative economic and health impact on the American people.”

 

Mercury is a big cause of birth defects, which especially impact poor people who live in the inner cities near these large power plants, Ferguson said.  

 

“Asthma attacks, and asthma causes a real tens, hundreds, and millions of dollars of lost economic opportunity in the United States, because money has to go to treating children with asthma or children not being able to do things because of asthma,” he said. “Those are all exasperated by coal powered power plants and that is reduced under the clean energy plan.”

 

Relaxed regulations in regards to power plants could have an effect on the Four Corners region as well, Ferguson said.

 

Four Corners Power Plant is a big but aging power plant near Page, AZ that is likely to close, and in the meantime before they close, these relaxed regulations could mean worse air quality in the region, he said.

 

“It could mean that they don’t have to control how much they burn at a time, don’t update scrubbers or do maintenance that would reduce pollution,” Ferguson said.  “We don’t know for sure but there could be potential there.”

 

Another act that seems to be in danger during the Trump administration is the ESA.  This act  says that to protect a species,  you have to protect its habitat and that habitat can extend over into private land. It doesn’t have to be in public land, Ferguson said.

 

“This is one of the most radical far-reaching environmental laws that we actually have had in the last couple decades,” he said. “It’s been one of the most powerful that environmentalists have used to protect environments, and its been effective.”

 

Bald eagles, grizzly bears, wolves and hundreds of other species have been put on this list and saved from extinction, Ferguson said.

 

“We’re living in the age of the sixth great extinction, where we expect maybe half of all the species on earth could be gone in the next century or so,” Ferguson said. “This act is vitally important for life on the planet, especially the United States.”

 

The act has been targeted by Republicans for years, he said. Under the Trump administration, there is a chance it will be done away with.

 

Republicans are targeting the Antiquities Act, but doing so could put an economic strain on the rural towns around the monuments, Ferguson said.

 

The Antiquities Act was signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.  The law gives the president the ability to create national monuments from federal lands that are deemed significant.

 

“Even though people there don’t necessarily want to admit it, generally what we see is over time, the economic impact of these designations is actually positive in rural communities,” he said. “I can see it especially in terms of how this administration will affect southwestern Colorado. I think potentially the end of Bears Ears, and possibly the transfer of public lands that we recreate on in southern Utah and love and are one of the reasons we want to be here.”

 

Another concern is the possibility of federal lands being transferred to the states, Ferguson said.  

 

“The big issue with transferring public lands to the states is the fear among most conservationists and environmentalists that if the states get hold of it, when that state goes into dire financial straits, they sell that land off and it becomes privatized,” he said.

 

When land becomes privatized, it becomes closed off to public access, and federal oversight, Ferguson said.  Without the federal oversight, environmental laws such as those protecting streams, species and habitats disappear, he said.  

 

“Congressman Jason Chaffetz from Utah introduced a bill last month to basically liquidate 3.1 million acres and transferring them to the states,” Ferguson said. “There was enough public outcry it looks like, that he pulled the bill, but I don’t think that assault is going to end, and I think that Trump would largely just let that happen. He seems so far to be fairly immune to public pressure from people who aren’t his supporters.”

 

Dr. Ferguson was optimistic concerning the environment leading up to the election.  He saw Trump as more moderate than the rest of the Republican party, and that could allow for some compromises. Now that Trump has taken office, Ferguson doesn’t feel as hopeful.

 

“I think we are actually starting to see between his campaign rhetoric on things like regulations and this his willingness to basically just allow the Republican party to do whatever they want to do,” Ferguson said. “I don’t really see a bright future in terms of the environment in the next two to four years.”