cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5281848
A sweeping Biden-era initiative to restore Columbia Basin salmon runs, boost tribal energy development and provide a pathway for dam removal on the Lower Snake River has been canceled by President Donald Trump.
A presidential memorandum issued Thursday revoked the 2023 Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement, which Trump stated “placed concerns about climate change above the Nation’s interests in reliable energy sources.”
A statement from the White House said Trump’s action “stops the green agenda in the Columbia River Basin.”
The memorandum directs federal agencies to withdraw from agreements stemming from “Biden’s misguided executive action.” In coordination with the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality, they are to review and revise environmental reviews related to the agreement, including an environmental-impact statement underway on dam operations on the Columbia and Snake rivers.
What even is the point of these agreements if the next president/administration can just come in and say “nevermind, we’re actually not doing that”. Can’t we get some sort of legislative process put in place around this kind of thing?!
Yeah it’s called “passing a law” but people only focus on the executive branch and forget to vote for midterms and shit.
Executive orders in their current capacity are a bastardization of our intended government.
Executive orders are this one weird trick Trump used to become king.
Most of the problems caused by Trump are for this exact reason.
Congress is too paralyzed to be effective anymore. The GOP is fully on Gingrich’s “never compromise with the Dems for any reason, and hold the government hostage until you get your way” corruption while the Dems are the party of “we’re beholden to the same corporate money as the GOP but at least the GOP doesn’t have to pretend to not be”.
Also, our eternally-increasing election cycles means that if you’re a Rep, you get maybe one full year to legislate before having to worry about the optics for your re-election.
Add in procedural bullshit like the Hastert Rule and the filibuster and the result is a government that only functions via executive order or when one party controls all the branches (and maybe not even then, depending on how extreme your caucus is or how bought your Senators are).
Fascism doesn’t work that way.