As a teenager living in the United States of America I am extremely concerned about President Donald Trump’s decisions to cancel funding completely for The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). These are environmental, public health, and financial protections put in place for the people of the United States. Cutting IRA funding will increase household energy costs and drastically reduce job opportunities in the coming years, with estimates predicting one million fewer jobs by 2030. President Trump also has cut 65 percent of the funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). I find this completely absurd.

As the president of the United States, Trump’s number one priority should always be the citizens of the U.S., but he has chosen to put companies and profit before human lives. The Trump administration has promised to cut environmental protections such as air quality standards and emissions requirements. Denying Americans opportunities that allow them to have clean water, air, and be prepared for increasingly common environmental disasters, is quite simply denying them the right to life. Not only are people’s lives at stake, but their jobs and their household energy bills as well. Canceling funds that protect people’s lives is never justified. Air pollution causes serious health issues including cancer, asthma, heart attacks, strokes, heart and lung disease, and many more illnesses. Cutting funding for research is directly endangering lives. Climate change affects marginalized communities the most as they are protected the least. The EPA and laws such as the IRA and IIJA provide funding and protection to those communities that otherwise would not have it — not only in regards to climate change, but also economically, as these acts come with significant savings.

Reinstating these funds is pertinent for the future of climate justice and for human safety. The Trump administration is doing everything it can to redirect support for climate action organizations and actively eliminating the progress we have made in recent years. For the sake of the American people, we must do everything in our power to overturn these decisions. We are not powerless.

Hadley Schiff

Williamsburg