The Trump Administration Is Trying an End Run Around Revoking California’s Car and Truck Rules
Zeldin’s actions face a major problem: the Congressional Review Act doesn't apply to California waivers.
Last Friday, EPA’s Administrator Lee Zeldin announced a new and unprecedented way to try to prevent California from implementing its ambitious program to move toward 100 percent zero emission vehicles. This time around, the Trump Administration is trying a new tactic. Rather than revoking EPA’s decision (called a waiver) to allow California’s program to move forward by using standard administrative procedures, as EPA did during Trump’s first term, Zeldin is try...
CONTINUE READINGAll the President’s Men
The people occupying environment and energy positions will be anti-regulatory and pro-fossil fuel.
As with any President, Trump's ability to achieve his agenda will depend on the people he's chosen to run the government. His energy and environment picks will follow the party line of expanding fossil fuels. Yet they may not be as extremist as their predecessors in the first Trump Administration or as some of Trump's current advisors. The Cast of Characters First, a quick introduction to the team of players. Lee Zeldin is the choice to head EPA. He’s a form...
CONTINUE READINGWhat Happens If EPA Revokes the Endangerment Finding?
The action would mean full-blown warfare against all things climate.
We are likely to learn next week if the Trump Administration will eviscerate the most important climate regulations the Biden Administration issued over the last four years. Under Trump's "Unleashing American Energy" Executive Order, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is supposed to recommend by February 19 whether to reverse the central basis for much of the U.S.'s climate policy: a finding under the Clean Air Act that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. Th...
CONTINUE READINGWhy I Still ♥ IRA
Biden’s climate law has already had a dramatic impact.
This isn't just a passing fancy -- I've felt this way since August 2022, when Congress passed IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act. Some Republicans have sworn to repeal it entirely, but they seem unlikely to succeed. Even if they do, they can’t wipe out the impacts IRA has already made, including over half a trillion dollars in new investment in clean tech. Let me start by hitting you with some numbers, more specifically, some really big numbers. An August 2024...
CONTINUE READINGThe Economics of Civil Service Abolitionism
Would elimination of civil service protection increase government efficiency? Probably not.
Trump’s rebranded Schedule F is an effort to strip government workers who have any involvement in policymaking of their civil service statute in the name of efficiency. Many people doubt that efficiency is the real motive, but even if it is, Schedule F could easily make the government less efficiency rather than more. It may seem obvious that people will work harder and more intently – and therefore more efficiently – if they face the risk of losing their jobs....
CONTINUE READINGA Trumped-Up Energy Emergency
We have weathered past threats to energy security through democratic processes, not by executive fiat.
This guest post was written by Joseph Tomain and Bryan Dunning. Tomain is Dean Emeritus and the Wilbert & Helen Ziegler Professor of Law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Dunning is a senior analyst at the Center for Progressive Reform. On January 20, 2025 — otherwise known as Day One of Trump 2.0 — the president signed a barrage of Executive Orders, including one declaring a national energy emergency. While it is unsurprising that his policy...
CONTINUE READINGThink Globally, Act Locally – Personal Environmental Action in the Era of Trump 2.0
AKA it should be much easier to put in a heat pump water heater.
The chaos of Trump 2.0 is making it difficult to think about affirmative environmental action these days. At the policy level and in the courts, environmentalists are going to be playing defense for the next few years. Much of what is going on these days feels beyond the average person’s control and that can be cause for feelings of hopelessness or despair. If you are committed to improving our environment though, there are still many actions one can take at a personal...
CONTINUE READINGPresidential Blitzkrieg: Good Tactics, Questionable Strategy
Flooding the zone has short-term benefits but possible long-term costs.
In the first two weeks of his administration, President Trump issued a flood of executive orders. Many of those actions relate to energy and the environment, with the general intent of handicapping clean energy and promoting fossil fuels. Flooding the zone has undoubtedly helped him dominate the news and may have stunned opponents. But short-term success doesn’t always translate into long-term gains. The short-term benefits are very real. Trump’s initial acts ...
CONTINUE READINGA Disinformation Deluge on California Policies
Trump and House Republicans are trying to ‘flood the zone’ when it comes to wrongly blaming California environmental regulations for the LA fires.
Trump’s longtime strategy of ‘flooding the zone” — aka overwhelming opponents with a flurry of announcements and superficial initiatives — took a literal turn last week, when his administration ordered the release of a significant amount of water from two dams in the Central Valley to try to score political points. As the New York Times reported, the water dump won’t do anything to serve the supposed policy objectives — to help Southern California fi...
CONTINUE READINGCrisis at DOJ’s Environment & Natural Resources Division
Guest contributors Sommer Engels, Andrew Mergen, and Justin Pidot write that dismantling ENRD will be disastrous for future administrations, the American people, and even for the Trump Administration.
The Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) of the Department of Justice faces its most profound crisis since it was established in 1909. In a little over a week, the Trump administration has (1) reassigned four career managers (leading nearly half of ENRD’s sections) to the newly formed Office of Sanctuary Cities Enforcement; (2) placed career attorneys working in ENRD’s Office of Environmental Justice on administrative leave; (3) suspended the nearly 75-y...
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