Environment Policy Brief #184 | Charlie Sweeney | November 24, 2025
Dolphins in New York Harbor, whales breaching off Lower Manhattan, oysters thriving in the waters around New York City, and the Hudson River—long written off as dead—now supports fishing again. These signs of environmental recovery, while miraculous, all could slam into reverse as the latest Trump administration rollbacks take effect.
For those keeping score at home, Trump’s disregard for climate control and environmental protections goes back to his first administration. But this week has been described by some activists as “the week from hell,” as the administration moved to end automatic protections for newly listed
threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Conservationists warn that weakening these protections could accelerate population declines and push vulnerable species toward possible extinction.
At the same time, the administration is reviving and expanding plans to open huge stretches of public land in the Arctic and the Western U.S. for oil and gas drilling. These landscapes are some of the last truly intact ecosystems on Earth, home to carbon-rich soils, rare species, and deep Indigenous heritage. The Center for Biological Diversity has warned that drilling in these regions would “cause irreparable damage to one of the world’s most important wild places and its wildlife,” a stark reminder of how quickly these ecosystems could be lost.
Climate policy is being dismantled just as aggressively. On ‘day one’ of Trump’s second term, the administration’s “Unleashing American Energy” order signaled a full embrace of fossil fuels, directing agencies to reconsider whether greenhouse gases are dangerous—a foundational scientific finding behind every major U.S. climate rule. Coal-mining safety rules and air-toxics standards for power plants are being rolled back too, even as black lung, asthma, and air-quality concerns rise.
And now the court battles are beginning. Environmental groups, and several states, have filed lawsuits challenging these rollbacks and the broader effort to shield fossil fuel companies from accountability.
For example, Ii Hawaiʻi’s pending climate deception lawsuit against Big Oil, Attorney General Anne Lopez stated that companies have “put profits ahead of people,” a sentiment that mirrors the broader fear that business interests are being elevated over environmental science in Washington.
Taken together, these actions form a clear and troubling pattern: extraction over preservation, deregulation over public health, short-term profit over long-term survival.
Nature is resilient, but it has limits. The return of dolphins and whales to New York waters happened because decades of regulation and cleanup made it possible. The booming oyster populations are the result of sustained pollution controls. Cleaner waters, returning wildlife, healthier ecosystems—these are achievements that can only be sustained through robust protections.
The stakes are high as the planet’s biological clock ticks, and without legal protections, this administration’s policy and regulation changes could have effects lasting for generations.
Engagement Resources
- “Dolphins Return to New York City Waters” — The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/02/nyregion/dolphins-nyc-hudson-river.html
- “Oyster Restoration Shows Promise in New York Harbor” — EcoWatch: https://www.ecowatch.com/new-york-harbor-oysters-restoration.html
- “Trump Administration Seeks to Roll Back Protections for Imperiled Species” — Associated Press: https://apnews.com/article/endangered-species-act-trump-regulations-bf92e52c78f345a2853a64ad6e12e1db
- “Lawsuit Aims to Block Drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge” — Center for Biological Diversity: https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/lawsuit-aims-block-drilling-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-2020-08-24/
- “Trump Signs Order to Boost Fossil Fuels and Review Climate Rules” — The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/20/trump-fossil-fuel-executive-order-climate-regulations
- “Hawaii Supreme Court Upholds Climate Lawsuit Against Big Oil” — Hawaii Attorney General: https://ag.hawaii.gov/news-release/hawaii-supreme-court-upholds-climate-lawsuit-against-big-oil/