power plant in Juliette, Georgia

Steam and smoke rise from a power plant in Juliette, Georgia. The Trump administration is proposing changes to the way such pollutants may be regulated.

Photograph by Robb Kendrick, National Geographic Creative

A running list of how President Trump is changing environmental policy

The Trump administration has promised vast changes to U.S. science and environmental policy—and we’re tracking them here as they happen.

ByNational Geographic Staff

In 2017, the arrival of the Trump Administration brought a flurry of changes to U.S. environmental policy—from the decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement to cutting federal funding for science and the environment initiatives. To keep track of it all, National Geographic kept a running list, below, of these developments for the first two years of the administration. Now, with campaign season in full swing, we’re keeping track of environmental actions and promises from both the Trump Administration and Democratic presidential nominee Joseph Biden. Follow along here.

Editor's Note: This page was originally published on March 31, 2017, and was last updated on May 3, 2019. It is no longer being updated.
Santa Catalina Island fox
a Florida scrub jay
a critically endangered flattened musk turtle
a narrow-headed garter snake
a spotted seal
a kentucky arrow darter
a Southeastern beach mouse
a male Steller's eider
an American crocodile
an Oregon spotted frog
a wood stork
a yellow-blotched map turtle
a Stock Island tree snail
a Mexican ridge-nosed rattlesnake
a Yosemite toad
a Mexican spotted owl
a crayfish
a red knot
a frosted flat woods salamander
a spectacled eider
an eastern indigo snake
a salado salamander
spring pygmy sunfish
a gopher tortoise
a snail darter
a piping plover
a ringed map turtle
1 of 27
A rare Santa Catalina Island fox, Urocyon littoralis catalinae, at Catalina Island Conservancy.
Photograph by Joel Sartore, National Geographic Photo Ark
coal in West Virginia
Mounds of unsold coal stand above ground at ERP Compliant Fuels' Federal No. 2 mine near Fairview, W.Va., April 11, 2016. With Donald Trump's win in the race for the White House, scores of regulations that have reshaped the contours of corporate America over the last eight years suddenly seemed vulnerable.
Photograph by Luke Sharrett, The New York Times/Redux

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