from masterresource
By Robert Bradley Jr. — January 25, 2025
“I ended the ridiculous and outrageously wasteful Green New Deal – what I called the 'Green New Scam'; withdrew from the one-sided Paris Climate Agreement; and ended the insanely expensive electric car mandate. We will let people buy what they want. of cars. (- Donald Trump, speaking on a conference call from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland)
The subtitle of Bloomberg Green Daily’s article “Trump’s Climate Whiplash” is:President Donald Trump's nonstop executive orders this week and what they mean for U.S. climate progress”. Given Trump’s immediate debunking of the climate alarm and reset of the forced energy transition, this article captures it verbatim. “Trump's first week ends with a bunch of [seven] Climate regression,” Bloomberg Greene began.
President Donald Trump has spared no effort to lay the groundwork for a sweeping anti-climate agenda, signing a series of executive orders hours after being sworn in to try to undo the policies of former President Joe Biden and ramp up fossil fuel extraction.
Monday, January 20, 2025. The rest of the week saw more executive orders, vowing to shrink or dismantle the Federal Emergency Management Agency and more. “This is all happening very quickly,” said Michael Berg, executive director of Columbia University's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.
Berg explained that the dizzying pace of announcements gives the impression that the entire climate landscape of the United States has changed in less than a week, even if that's not entirely true. While a lot was certainly happening, he said, “a lot of it wasn't actually doing what they sounded like — they were telling other people to look into things and then come up with a plan to pursue broad policies.”
Ultimately, it will likely be up to the courts to decide whether most things come into effect and remain unchanged. Here’s a quick overview of some of the most notable climate-related actions to date:
Withdraw from the Paris Agreement
In one of Trump's first actions, he signed an order directing the United States to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, an agreement signed by nearly 200 countries to control greenhouse gas emissions to avoid catastrophic warming. Trump did this the last time he was in office, and no other country has followed suit. The move will take at least a year to take effect. Environmental leaders condemned the withdrawal, which could give other groups and countries, especially China, more influence in global climate negotiations.
Trump also revoked the U.S. International Climate Finance Program, which had directed billions of dollars to help other countries cope with climate impacts.
IRA payout pause
Trump directed agencies through an executive order to “immediately pause” and review funding through two major Biden-era laws, the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The next day, the government clarified that the suspension only related to energy-related projects, including those related to renewable energy and electric vehicle charging, but not projects such as bridges or highways. The pause is expected to last 90 days, after which federal officials will share their comments with the White House and provide recommendations on next steps.
It's unclear what will happen after the pause, and climate experts say any attempt to recoup spending is certain to trigger a legal battle.
Electric vehicles become a target
As part of a broader energy order, Trump ordered his administration to look into eliminating subsidies and other policies that support electric vehicles. He specifically expressed interest in ending “state emissions exemptions designed to limit sales of gasoline-powered vehicles.” It's a sign that Trump is seeking to challenge California's ability to restrict sales of gasoline-powered cars again in his first term.
Approvals for some wind and solar projects halted
The Interior Department on Monday ordered a 60-day pause on approvals of leases, rights-of-way and other authorizations related to wind and solar projects on federal lands and waters. In another move, Trump also signed an executive order on Monday to temporarily halt approval of new offshore wind power projects. Trump has been outspoken about his dislike of wind energy for years, and experts expect it to be his target this time around.
LNG export ban lifted
In stark contrast to his actions on renewable energy and electric vehicles, Trump moved immediately to lift a Biden-era ban on new liquefied natural gas export licenses. In late December, a study released by the Biden administration found that additional exports would raise natural gas prices for U.S. consumers and exacerbate global warming. Trump has also revoked offshore oil and gas leases, but it is unclear when new offshore lease sales will occur.
environmental justice decline
Trump not only reversed a Biden-era executive order directing federal agencies to further consider environmental justice in everything they do, but also reversed a 1994 Clinton-era executive order on the issue. Alice Kaswan, a law professor at the University of San Francisco, noted that the impact of these rollbacks is difficult to determine: in part because agencies may have incorporated environmental justice considerations into their regulations, and removing that would likely require new, Slow regulatory change. One clear immediate impact, however, is the expected government closures of various environmental justice offices and positions.
US Climate Corps canceled
Biden created the American Climate Corps, a program designed to place young people in climate-related entry-level jobs across the country. This week, Trump dismissed it. It's unclear if and how this will affect people who already find work through the program, which is not starting from scratch but being built and embedded into a network of existing job programs run by states and the country.
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