Environmental policies adopted during President Obama’s administration could be challenged or even rolled back by the Trump administration. Among them, the five-year moratorium on drilling for oil and gas offshore in the Atlantic. New Jersey’s U.S. senators, joined by environmental advocates and a congressional delegation, are calling on President Obama to make that temporary ban permanent in the time he has left. Congressman Frank Pallone,who is sponsoring legislation in the House to make the offshore ban permanent, spoke with NJTV News Anchor Mary Alice Williams from Monmouth University about his concerns.
Pallone: The concern that we have is that both the President-Elect Trump as well as the transition team has said that they want to expand offshore drilling. That could easily lead to drilling in the Atlantic, which we have stopped at least for the last few years and now for the next five years. But of course a new Congress or a new president could change that and we’re trying to make it as permanent as we can before President Trump takes office.
Williams: Will President-Elect Trump have the power to overturn the interior secretary’s decision?
Pallone: Well it doesn’t seem likely for the next five years because that is now in place. What he could obviously try and implement is drilling in the Atlantic after that, or pass legislation that would allow it fairly quickly. It seems that his energy policy, Mary Alice, is simply one of more fossil fuel, more coal, more oil, more drilling, more fracking and moving away from renewables such as solar and wind power. He’s also talking about withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement and scrapping President Obama’s Clean Power Plan so that we would not be participating in any national or international efforts to limit greenhouse gases, which cause climate change.
Williams: Could he do that without congressional approval?
Pallone: Oh absolutely. He can withdraw from the Paris Agreement without congressional approval. He can scrap the Clean Power Plan without congressional approval. Those were done by the president himself. President Obama signed the Paris Agreement on behalf of the United States and the Clean Power Plan as put together by the EPA through executive order so he doesn’t even need Congress to get rid of those. And the transition team continues to say that that’s what they’re going to do.
Williams: Let me ask you about the Affordable Care Act. At first he said he was going to erase it and repeal it, repeal it and replace it I should say, and now he’s saying now he wants to save some parts of that. Is that possible given that it’s so enmeshed in the country’s health care system?
Pallone: Well it’s certainly possible to do. That would have to take congressional action, but as you know Speaker Paul Ryan and the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have said they want to scrap the Affordable Care Act. What they would do basically, from what I understand, is they would eliminate the subsidies that they give to people that pay for their premiums, they would eliminate the expansion of Medicaid, they would eliminate the penalty if you don’t sign up for health insurance. So I think for most of the 20 to 30 million people who do have health insurance now pursuant to the Affordable Care Act, they would increasingly find themselves without health insurance. I mean, their whole emphasis seems to be that this should all be done privately, people should be able to get health insurance through private insurers. But the problem is it’s very unaffordable without those subsidies. It’s highly unlikely that most of those people would be able to get health insurance.
Williams: You were one of the lead architects of the Affordable Care Act. The parts that everyone seems to agree, including the president-elect, seems to agree on is that children under the age of 26 are covered under their parents’ account and there are no preconditions that would prevent you from being covered. Can those be saved?
Pallone: Well I do think that they intend to save those. I call those the anti-discrimination provisions. In other words, that you’ll be able to buy health insurance even if you have a pre-existing condition, they wouldn’t be able to limit your lifetime benefits, those types of things. But keep in mind that those things are important, but unless people have the means to pay for health insurance, they’re not going to be able to buy it. So yes, there wouldn’t be discriminatory practices, and that’s certainly a good thing, but most of the people that are covered under Obamacare who weren’t covered before are only covered because they’re getting some help paying for it. If that is eliminated, practically speaking, they’re not going to have health insurance.
Williams: Many Democrats say they’re concerned what the president-elect will do, or undo, when he assumes office. Is there a consensus among Democrats about how to respond?
Pallone: I think we simply have to alert the public. I don’t believe for one minute that any of the things that I just talked to you about, the majority of the public want to see changed. In other words, when people talk about Obamacare they basically say, “Well health insurance prices are going up” but they’re not going up as much as they did before Obamacare, or before the Affordable Care Act. I don’t think people want to see the government not help people pay for their premiums or expand Medicaid — and the same thing with the environment. I don’t know anybody — be they Democrat or Republican — who doesn’t recognize that climate change is here and that we have to reduce greenhouse gases. I mean anybody who went through Sandy knows that storms are becoming more frequent, more powerful. You know, when we had Sandy hit our shores there was massive destruction and a lot of that is due to climate change. So, I think what we have to explain, somehow the public has got to get across to the Trump administration that these are not things, this is not the type of change that the public was clamoring for. I think the public would like to see more jobs, more infrastructure, keeping American jobs here at home. But they’re not in favor of getting rid of health insurance for people who can’t afford it, or breaking down environmental barriers. So I just think we have to keep making the point.