Environmentalists warn of bumblebee’s extinction after Trump halts regulations
Donald Trump has been accused of targeting Muslims, media outlets and even department stores in his first month in the White House. Now, the US president may have doomed a threatened bumblebee.
An executive order freezing new regulations could push the rusty patched bumblebee towards extinction, environmental groups claim. The 60-day pause on all federal regulations that have yet to be implemented – which includes the bumblebee protection – will review “questions of fact, law, and policy they raise”, according to the White House memo.
The bumblebee was the first bee of any kind in the contiguous US to ever be declared as endangered, with the listing decided during the final days of Barack Obama’s administration. Trump’s halt on new regulations came just one day before protections were formally put in place for the crucial pollinator.
