In my blogs, I avoid getting into political debates. But, in focusing on Sustainable Living, when I saw this article, I thought it would be worthwhile to share it. The Guardian is a British-based publication that looks at major events around the world. They report on trends in governance, even citing activities in some nations, but they never get into the midst of a specific political campaign. That’s why this article caught my attention. It has pro-Trump and anti-Trump citations. You decide which way you prefer to go.
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‘In a word, horrific’: Trump’s extreme
Anti-environment Blueprint
Allies and advisers have hinted at a more methodical second term:
driving forward fossil fuel production, sidelining scientists
and overturning rules
The Guardian
6 Feb 2024
The United States’s first major climate legislation dismantled, a crackdown on government scientists, a frenzy of oil and gas drilling, the Paris climate deal not only dead but buried.
A blueprint is emerging for a second Donald Trump term that is even more extreme for the environment than his first, according to interviews with multiple Trump allies and advisers.
In contrast to a sometimes chaotic first White House term, they outlined a far more methodical second presidency: driving forward fossil fuel production, sidelining mainstream climate scientists and overturning rules that curb planet-heating emissions. Myron Ebell, who headed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) transition team for Trump’s first term, said …
“Trump will undo everything [Joe] Biden
has done, he will move more quickly and
go further than he did before. He will
act much more expeditiously
to impose his agenda.”
The prized target for Trump’s Republican allies, should the former president defeat Joe Biden in November’s election, will be the Inflation Reduction Act, the landmark $370bn bill laden with support for clean energy projects and electric vehicles. Ebell said the legislation, signed by Biden in 2022 with no Republican votes, was “the biggest defeat we’ve suffered”.
Carla Sands, a key environment adviser to the pro-Trump America First Policy Institute who has criticized Biden’s “apocalyptic green fantasies”, said …
“Our nation needs a level regulatory playing
field for all forms of energy to compete.
Achieving this level playing field will require
the repeal of the energy and environment
provisions within the Inflation Reduction Act.”
The GOP-controlled House of Representatives has already pushed bills to gut the act. But fully repealing the IRA, which has disproportionally brought popular funding and jobs in solar, wind and battery manufacturing to Republican districts, may be politically difficult for Trump even if his party gains full control of Congress.
However, Trump could still slow down the progress of the clean energy transition as president by redrawing the rules for the IRA’s generous tax credits.
He would, his allies say, also scrap government considerations of the damage caused by carbon emissions; compel a diminished EPA to squash pollution rules for cars, trucks and power plants; and symbolically nullify the Paris climate agreement by not only withdrawing the US again but sending it to the Senate for ratification as a treaty, knowing it would fail.
Mandy Gunasekara, Trump’s former EPA chief of staff, argued that the agreement puts too little pressure on China, India and other developing countries to reduce their emissions She said …
“The Paris climate accord does nothing
to actually improve the environment
here in the United States or globally.”
In recent rallies, Trump, the likely Republican nominee, has called renewable energy “a scam business” and vowed to “drill, baby, drill”. On his first day in office, Trump has said he would repeal “crooked Joe Biden’s insane electric vehicle mandate” and approve a glut of new gas export terminals currently paused by Biden.
Areas currently off-limits for drilling, such the Arctic, will also probably be opened up to industry by Trump. “I will end his war on American energy,” Trump has said of the incumbent president, even though in reality the US hit record levels of oil and gas production last year.
Tom Pyle, president of the free market American Energy Alliance and previous head of the US Department of Energy’s transition team under Trump, said …
“I expect the Republicans will put together
their own very aggressive reconciliation bill
to claw back the subsidies in the IRA.
The president will benefit from having the
experience of being in office before, he’ll get
a faster head start on his agenda. He won’t
be encumbered by the need to be re-elected,
so there will be a short window of time but
he may be more aggressive as a result.”
‘There is no logic to it’
Critics of Trump, who are already fretting over his potential return to the White House, warn this agenda will stymie clean energy investment, place Americans’ health at the mercy of polluters, badly damage the effort to address the climate crisis and alienate America’s allies.
“A return of Trump would be, in a word, horrific,”
…said Andrew Rosenberg, a former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official, now fellow at the University of New Hampshire.
“It would also be incredibly stupid. It
Would roll back progress made over
decades to protect public health and
safety, there is no logic to it other than
to destroy everything. People who support
him may not realize it’s their lives at stake, too.”
A second Trump term would be more ideologically extreme than the first, with fewer restraints, Rosenberg claimed. “There were people part of a reasonable mainstream in his first term who buffered against his craziest instincts – they won’t be there anymore,” he said.
Should Trump manage to repeal the IRA and water down or scrap EPA pollution rules, there would be severe consequences for a world that is struggling to contain an escalating climate crisis, experts say.
The US, the world’s second biggest carbon polluter, would still see its emissions drop under Trump due to previous policies and a market-led shift away from coal to gas as an energy source, but at only half the rate of a second Biden term, according to an analysis by Energy Innovation shared with The Guardian.
This would deal a mortal blow to the global effort to restrain dangerous global heating, with scientists warning that the world needs to cut greenhouse gas emissions by nearly half this decade, and eliminate them entirely by 2050, to avoid breaching agreed temperature limits and plunge billions of people into worsening heatwaves, floods and droughts.
Anand Gopal, executive, director at Energy Innovation, said …
“I don’t think Donald Trump would actually be
able to replace the IRA, but you couldn’t rule it out.
If he did, the global effect would be potentially
disastrous. It would encourage everyone else
to go backwards or slow down their climate
pledges and put the world way off track to
where it needs to be. It could prove the difference
between staying under 1.5C warming or not.”
Much will hinge upon any new Trump administration’s ability to better navigate arcane regulatory procedures and the courts. His previous term saw an enormous number of legal defeats for his hurried attempts at environmental rollbacks, as well as the departure of scandal-plagued cabinet members overseeing this effort.
Jeff Navin, a former chief of staff at the US Department of Energy, said …
“You can’t just snap your fingers. You need
to spend a lot of time redoing regulations. Is
that something Trump really wants to do
rather than just pursue other grievances?
I don’t think so.”
But some conservatives believe Trump will prove more successful second time around, pointing to an amenably conservative supreme court and more detailed planning ahead of the election, such as the Project 2025 document put out by the rightwing Heritage Foundation, which details severe cuts to the EPA and Department of the Interior, as well as a greater politicization of the civil service to push through Trumpian goals.
Paul Dans, director of Project 2025, told E&E News last year …
“We are writing a battle plan, and we are
marshaling our forces. Never before has
the whole conservative movement banded
together to systematically prepare
to take power day one and decon-
struct the administrative state.”
Jeff Holmstead, who ran the EPA’s air office during George W Bush’s administration, said Trump’s administration would be “much more prepared” for a second term. He said …
“They know what they need to do to undo rules
in a legally defensible way. A new Trump
administration would take a more “surgical
approach” to deregulation, he said, taking
more of its cues from industry.”
Gunasekara said …
“Under Biden, there has been an “unnecessary
tension” between the oil sector and regulators.
You have to work with the industry players.
Agencies should not be about suppressing
or boosting particular technologies.”
Early on, Trump officials will probably work with Congress to kill certain rules through a parliamentary procedure called the Congressional Review Act. The Clinton-era statute empowers Congress and the president to work together to overturn major federal regulations within 60 legislative days of finalization, by passing a joint resolution of disapproval signed by the president. Holmstead said …
“Generally in the past, anything
that is finalized after mid- to late
May is likely to be within that win-
dow, So speed is of the essence
for the Biden administration.”
A fresh Trump term could engulf federal climate scientists, too, who were ignored but largely allowed to issue their work during Trump’s last term. A new Trump White House could intervene more to alter climate reports, or even stage a previously mooted public debate on the merits of climate science. Ebell said …
“I expect that idea will be revived and I think
we would get a much wider view of climate
science that wouldn’t be controlled by a
small cabal. That will start very quickly.”
Trump’s plans come as Biden has struggled to inspire younger, climate-conscious voters who have been angered by his ongoing leasing of public lands and waters to the fossil fuel industry, such as the controversial Willow oil project in Alaska.
Biden has overseen a boom in liquified natural gas exports that he has belatedly attempted to restrain and his administration has floundered in its attempts to sell the IRA to the American public, with most voters unaware of the climate legislation or its significance in driving down emissions.
Still, the president’s position on climate change is incomparable to Trump’s, according to Rosenberg …
“The contrast is incredibly stark between Biden and
Trump. Do I think Biden is the best of the best? Of
course not. But compared to Trump? That’s just scary.
Anyone who cares about public health, the environ-
ment, science, international relations, you could go on,
should be scared about another Trump presidency.”
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I think we all share a concern about the health of our planet, and our ability to enjoy our lives on it. For me, President Biden has been relatively soft-spoken and easy-going. Yet, I do see regulations that I believe will reduce pollution and increase the health of Earth and of all of us. Also, many nations are experiencing economic problems, and are currently in an economic recession. For some reason, we’re not, for which I’m grateful. Adding D’s comments …
“It is every American’s right and privilege to vote on election day. Many who do not vote in smaller elections almost always vote for a President. We would wish that all who can vote will vote. Of the two major parties, many people feel there are not great choices between the two major parties’ candidates. We still believe there really is only one choice that is the better choice for Mother Earth.”
