What NRDC Is Doing to Fight Trump’s Anti-Environment Agenda
The following is a transcript of the video.
Mitchell Bernard, NRDC Chief Counsel: The opponent that we're facing now, the Trump administration, is the single worst enemy of the environment and human health that I think we've ever had.
We've lived through the Reagan years, the Gingrich Congress, the Bush II years. It was nothing like this. This is the worst.
One of the infuriating things about this administration and about the president himself is that he lies all the time, and he lies with apparent impunity. You cannot do that in court. It doesn't work in court. Facts matter, evidence matters. There are no alternative facts.
There's a whole architecture of environmental and human health protections that have been built in this country for the last 47 years, and the Trump administration means to destroy that architecture. It wants to burn that building down. We need to stop them.
NRDC has been litigating cases, suing polluters, holding them accountable since its founding in 1970. It's part of the DNA of NRDC. We litigate under the full range of environmental laws: the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act. We actually helped write some of these laws. But a law on the books is only words on paper.
NRDC has to enforce the law in order to protect people against what this administration is doing. We've brought successful cases and won relief for citizens all over the country, from the Port of Los Angeles to the interior of California to the Great Lakes to the Everglades to the Penobscot River in Maine. There is no place in this country where we have not sued and triumphed to protect citizens.
We're going to fight these people every step of the way. Every unlawful move they make in the environment and human health arena, we're going to meet them in court, we're going to sue them, and we're going to prevail.
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