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By Suzanne Potter
May 7, 2025
Elected officials spoke out Tuesday at an energy security summit in Washington D.C., calling on Congress to protect federal climate investments and environmental regulations.
The Trump administration has begun canceling climate-related projects funded by Congress during the Biden administration. Offshore wind funding has been halted completely.
Yetide Badaki, an actress and environmental advocate, said Trump should not be able to block funds appropriated by Congress.
“The Inflation Reduction Act and environmental regulations are being besieged by a president who believes that his every want should magically become the law of the land,” Badaki observed. “That is not how the Constitution works.”
The administration has taken multiple actions to boost oil and gas production, while working against offshore wind power and government rebates for electric vehicles. And Republicans in the U.S. House just voted to rescind a waiver that allows California to enforce strict vehicle emissions standards.
Pat Spearman, a former Nevada State Senator and a retired Army Lt. Colonel, said the nation’s reliance on oil and gas plays a big part in our military entanglements, which take a toll on service members.
“It’s about the people that we lose,” Spearman pointed out. “Six out of every 10 deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan were somehow related to oil: guarding it, moving it, off-loading it, something. How many more must die because we can’t curb our appetite for fossil fuels?”
Daniel Ramos, vice mayor of Adelanto and a Navy veteran, said Congress should not cut climate crisis mitigation programs such as Justice40, which allocates 40% of its funding to low-income communities overburdened by air and water pollution.
“The Justice40 initiative, along with the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, provide crucial federal resources for clean water, sustainable infrastructure and green spaces,” Ramos explained. “We must actively advocate to protect and maximize these investments for all communities.”