Last week the Trump Administration launched an attack on the health of American families and our environment when Trump signed an executive order rolling back some of the previous administration's critical climate protections and clean energy policies.

The president ended the current moratorium that prevents new coal leases on federal lands, which means more coal could go to power plants all over the world sending more carbon pollution into the atmosphere.

Trumps order proposes to roll back the EPA's Clean Power Plan - a cornerstone of our nation's commitment to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.

While there is no doubt these executive actions will be challenged in court, in the meantime Trump is doing everything in his power to weaken efforts to fight the climate crisis so more money can go into the pockets of his billionaire fossil fuel friends.

Sixty-five percent of Americans favor prioritizing clean energy over fossil fuels.

Trump continues to fail to recognize that when clean energy loses, the American economy loses.

In fact he says he is doing this to bring back jobs for coal miners. At most this move would produce maybe 75,000 jobs, mining dirty coal, while investing in clean energy would create over 650,000 jobs.

Over all, the goal of the Paris Climate deal is to keep the planet from warming more than 3.6 degrees, the point at which scientists say the earth will be irrevocably locked into a future of severe droughts, floods, rising sea levels and food shortages. We have to try to mitigate this increase in carbon pollution while preparing to adapt to changes that will already happen because we have not taken sufficient action to slow climate change.

Environmentalists are likely to sue to protect the Clean Power Plan, forcing the White House to prove in court that the regulation meets the legal standard of "arbitrary and capricious."

To do this, White House attorneys would have to debunk the overwhelming scientific consensus that global warming is man-made.

So his swift signature and bold remarks will take months of court battles, while the majority of Americans who want to cut carbon emissions will write letters, send emails, make phone calls and March on DC to stop this reckless executive order!

Linda Ryan

Dawsonville