Because the Eaton and Palisades fires raged in Los Angeles, quite a lot of Democrats and a minimum of one Occasions columnist claimed President Trump would punish California fairly than assist it recuperate from the devastation. If the record-breaking cleanup of properties — led by the administration’s Environmental Safety Company — is any indication, these fears had been drastically overblown.
On Jan. 24, Trump signed Executive Order 14181 calling for the EPA to “expedite the majority elimination of contaminated and basic particles” from the zones affected by the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, in an effort to speed up efforts to assist the survivors recuperate and rebuild their lives.
On the time, the EPA interpreted the order to imply that the preliminary cleanup of hazardous materials needed to be accomplished by Feb. 25. CBS Information, reporting on the president’s formidable one-month deadline, quoted nameless authorities officers as extremely skeptical that cleanup could possibly be carried out that quick. In reality, most estimates had been that particles elimination would take a minimum of three months and greater than a 12 months for some properties.
“An EPA official on the bottom described the expedited cleanup deadline to CBS Information as ‘bananas,’ whereas one other former EPA official stated it could be almost unimaginable to fulfill this deadline,” the CBS News report said.
White Home nationwide safety advisor Mike Waltz oversees interagency coordination associated to catastrophe response efforts. “Simply three days after his inauguration,” Waltz advised me, “President Trump was on the bottom in Los Angeles, noticed first-hand the devastation from the wildfires and vowed a historic sense of urgency from federal businesses. Because of the president’s decisive motion, the Trump administration led a cleanup of hazardous supplies at a tempo by no means seen earlier than.”
It was and nonetheless is a Herculean cleanup effort: For the Section 1 cleanup, crews cleared properties by hand, looking for such substances as bleach, paint, weed killer and pesticides, in addition to batteries, propane tanks and asbestos. Greater than 9,000 properties had been searched and cleared (4,852 houses in Altadena; 4,349 within the Palisades) and greater than 1,000 lithium-ion batteries had been disposed of in simply 28 days.
EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Jan. 29, 5 days after Trump signed the Los Angeles cleanup order, advised me he’s “immensely pleased with the devoted women and men from the EPA who’ve labored tirelessly to finish the most important wildfire cleanup within the historical past of our company.”
For a body of reference on how rapidly the Trump administration moved in Los Angeles, think about what occurred following the 2023 fireplace that destroyed Maui, a spot with far fewer properties. Section 1 cleanup there took 112 days.
An official with the EPA advised me the Trump administration, working with the California Division of Poisonous Substances Management, basically threw every little thing however the kitchen sink on the president’s cleanup directive. The hassle required greater than 1,500 folks — EPA workers, state employees, some members of the navy — in almost 50 groups “doing reconnaissance, hazardous supplies elimination and lithium ion battery work.”
State officers have praised Trump’s L.A. effort as effectively. In a letter dated Feb. 26, Yana Garcia, California secretary for environmental safety, thanked Zeldin profusely for the EPA’s “historic collaboration with the California Division of Poisonous Substances Management (DTSC) to realize this vital milestone.”
“After we met in early February, prior experiences recommended that Section 1 may take months. But the work was accomplished in a matter of weeks,” Garcia wrote.
The Military Corps of Engineers was capable of start Section 2 of the cleanup — requiring extra difficult efforts at 4,400 properties — as Section 1 was in progress, which once more ought to assist pace the work required to let residents rebuild.
The purpose is easy: The Trump administration is displaying excessive governing competence in serving to Los Angeles recuperate from the wildfires, and no indicators in any respect of punishing a deeply blue state.
There may be widespread, bipartisan settlement that federal and native officers are working effectively collectively. And regardless of some clear political variations the president has with sure California insurance policies, it has clearly not affected the important work of the federal authorities serving to native residents get again on their toes.
This was a large check for Trump, and he handed it with flying colours. The pearl-clutching and political fear-mongering from Democrats was clearly overblown.
Scott Jennings is a CNN senior political commentator and a former particular assistant to President George W. Bush.
