In response to President Trump’s April 8 Executive Order, Environmental Advocates NY executive director Vanessa Fajans-Turner issued the following statement:
Not content with tanking the economy, yesterday President Donald Trump launched a direct attack on our air and water—and our future.
The executive order he signed is a blueprint to drag New York and the nation backwards, to a time when rivers caught fire, acid rain fell in the Adirondacks, and you couldn’t see the New York City skyline through the smog. That’s not hyperbole. That’s history. And we refuse to repeat it.
In the over 50 years since Environmental Advocates NY was founded, we’ve helped lead the fight to clean our water, clear our air, and confront the climate crisis. Because of our work, New Yorkers today live longer, healthier lives. Our economy is stronger, our natural ecosystems more resilient, and our laws are rooted in science, fairness, and what works.
We’re not going to allow anyone to undo that progress—not President Trump, not coal, oil, or gas CEOs, and not anyone else trying to cling to a dying industry.
This executive order is a desperate attempt to stop the only place progress is still possible: the states. New York’s nation-leading climate law, our efforts to hold polluters accountable, and our commitment to protecting irreplaceable places like the Adirondacks and the Catskills are a threat to President Trump’s fossil fuel agenda. That’s why we’re the target.
Well, here’s our response: New York doesn’t take orders from polluters.
That’s not just New York’s policy. It’s New York’s right—guaranteed by both the New York State and Federal constitutions—to defend the health and safety of our people.
We need strong leaders who will stand up to this illegal and unconstitutional overreach. We need state and federal officials who will defend New York’s right to act where Washington DC has failed. And we need every New Yorker to see this for what it is: a threat to our health, our rights, and our future.
We’ve made too much progress to leave the next generation worse off. We’re going to fight—and win—again.
Background on President Trump’s April 8th Executive Order:
- Orders the Attorney General to identify and “take all appropriate action to stop the enforcement” of “state laws purporting to address ‘climate change’ or involving ‘environmental, social, and governance’ initiatives, ‘environmental justice,’ carbon or ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions, and funds to collect carbon penalties or carbon taxes.”
- Singles out New York and Vermont’s Climate Superfund laws, calling them “extortion” on “traditional energy producers.”
- Governors Hochul and Lujan Grisham, co-chairs of the U.S. Climate Alliance, stood up to President Trump: “We will keep advancing solutions to the climate crisis that safeguard Americans’ fundamental right to clean air and water, create good-paying jobs, grow the clean energy economy, and make our future healthier and safer.”
