These are the biggest ‘anti-environment’ policies enacted in Trump’s 1st 100 days, according to experts

President Donald Trump has enacted a sweeping number of policies that could harm the environment and hamper goals for greenhouse gas reductions during his first 100 days in office, according to environmental policy experts.

When Trump was inaugurated for his second term on Jan. 20, his administration came prepared — shattering the record for the most executive orders signed on the first day in office.

Several of the 54 executive orders signed on Inauguration Day impacted the environment, including a declaration of a national energy emergency, withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement for the second time and rolling back drilling restrictions on federal lands and waters.

The policies are largely shrouded in the idea of U.S. independence or “putting America first,” the orders state.

The Trump administration has engaged in a “flood the zone” strategy to overwhelm the environmental community and make it nearly impossible for them to respond to every single executive order, Dan Esty, a professor of environmental law and policy at Yale University and former commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, told ABC News.

While some of the Trump administration’s “anti-environment” policies, as Esty called them, are garnering more attention than others, he added the public shouldn’t ignore the seemingly minor rollbacks or actions.

“There are a number of more subtle actions that the Trump administration has taken that also have considerable corrosive effect on our efforts to promote action on climate change and a sustainable future more broadly,” he said.

One example experts cited is the rollback of the social cost of carbon regulation, a policy implemented during the Obama administration, Esty said. This decision could upend energy and environmental regulations designed to address the greenhouse gas emissions that heavily contribute to climate change, he explained.

“The takedown of the social cost of carbon has subtle but pervasive effects that will really damage environmental protection,” Esty said.

Another example is Trump’s executive order to protect “American energy from state overreach,” which contains language that could block enforcement of state and local laws that intervene in the production or use of coal, oil, natural gas, hydropower, geothermal, biofuel and nuclear energy. The order centralizes energy regulation at the federal level and targets policies that restrict carbon emissions, which could further derail decarbonization efforts and roll back clean air and water protections, experts say.

On Monday, the Trump administration dismissed the authors of the Sixth National Climate Assessment report — the U.S. government’s preeminent report on the risks, impacts and responses to climate change mandated by Congress and produced every four years. In an email to the authors, the administration wrote that “the scope of the NCA6 is currently being reevaluated” and officials are “releasing all current assessment participants from their roles.”

The “Climate Backtracker,” a database started by Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change that tracks steps taken by the Trump administration to scale back or eliminate federal climate mitigation and adaptation measures, lists more than 100 actions taken since Jan. 20.

It will be difficult to reverse the damage done by many of these policies, John Holdren, a professor of environmental science and policy and former science adviser to President Barack Obama, told ABC News.

“You cannot reassemble broken programs very quickly,” he said.

These are some of Trump’s policies that some experts say could cause the most environmental harm.

Attempt to boost fossil fuel production

Trump’s declaration of a national energy emergency lays the framework for enacting policies that increase domestic production of fossil fuels, experts said.

“We need a reliable, diversified, and affordable supply of energy to drive our Nation’s manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, and defense industries, and to sustain the basics of modern life and military preparedness,” according to an executive order he signed.

Apart from rolling back restrictions on drilling, Trump also signed an executive order to expand mining and the use of coal in the U.S.

On April 18, the Department of the Interior announced a new offshore leasing plan on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.

Sam Sankar, senior vice president at Earthjustice, the nation’s largest public interest environmental law firm, told ABC News that U.S. fossil fuel production is at an all-time high, despite Trump’s claims of an energy crisis.

In 2024, the country produced 13.2 million barrels of oil per day, breaking the record set in 2019 at 12.3 million barrels, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. For the last several years, the U.S. has been the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world.

EPA deregulation

Several of the environmental freedoms Americans experience today – clean air, clean water and clean rain among them – could soon be in jeopardy from the Environmental Protection Agency’s deregulation plans, according to experts.

On March 12, the EPA announced it was taking part in the “biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history.” The move includes rolling back emission regulations on coal, oil and gas production and reevaluating government findings that determined that greenhouse gas emissions heat the planet and are a threat to public health, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said.

“Alongside President Trump, we are living up to our promises to unleash American energy, lower costs for Americans, revitalize the American auto industry, and work hand-in-hand with our state partners to advance our shared mission,” Zeldin said in March.

In November, when Trump announced his intention to nominate Zeldin, he said the new EPA administrator would “ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses” in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.

Revoking these regulations would hamper the EPA’s ability to keep Americans from getting sick from the exposure to environmental pollutants, experts said.

“Any policy changes that may occur under this administration will continue to protect human health and the environment,” an EPA spokesperson said in response to an ABC News request for comment. “They will be guided by science and the law, as well as input from the public. They will also be guided by many of the executive orders issued by the President and EPA Administrator Zeldin’s Powering the Great American Comeback Initiative.”

The health of Americans, however, could suffer as a result of sweeping regulation at the EPA, Sankar said.

“All of the regulations [Trump] is rolling back are aimed at making it easier for the fossil fuel manufacturers to generate petrochemicals and and fuel supplies,” he said. “All of that stuff has tremendous health consequences.”

Federal firings and slashing of budgets, programs

After taking office, Trump created the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), overseen by billionaire Elon Musk and intended to incorporate cost-cutting within the federal government.

Since then, DOGE has eliminated thousands of federal employees at key scientific institutions, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA.

The White House says Trump created DOGE “to bring accountability and transparency to federal spending, ensuring taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and effectively.”

The NWS has cancelled certain weather balloon launches and is dealing with staffing issues at many of its local offices as a result of the cuts, the agency announced in March.

The administration has been “slashing staff, slashing budgets, slashing programs across the range of federal departments and agencies with responsibilities for supporting this enormous science and technology enterprise,” Holdren said.

While the “assault” on environmental policy, as Esty termed it, was anticipated going into Trump’s second term, the sweeping personnel cuts were not.

“When people of expertise and competence leave the government, you cannot find them and rehire them and reassemble them into teams very quickly,” Holdren said.

Esty added, “It has long been understood that good policy depends on careful analysis and good science, and we’re seeing the capacity to deliver that foundation systematically undermined.”

Meanwhile, mentions of climate change began disappearing from public websites after Inauguration Day.

“This can hardly be seen as anything short of a wholesale attack on the sources of scientific and technological innovation in this country,” Holdren said.