Trump Administration
Tracking the Trump Administration
Rollbacks of Climate, Energy, and Environmental Policies and Investments
The first month of the Trump Administration has resulted in a dizzying flurry of actions and reactions. Many of us are wondering how to track the status of these actions, including the legal challenges to these actions. Luckily, a number of institutions are keeping track of the range of policy and legal actions that are …
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CONTINUE READINGTrump’s Seven Most Anti-Environmental Moves — and How to Push Back
There were dozens of actions, all harmful to the environment. These are the worst of the worst.
In the month since he reentered the White House, Trump has dedicated himself to knee-capping environmental protection through a series of executive orders. These orders aim to eliminate crucial environmental regulations, eviscerate key agencies like EPA, arbitrarily halt government funding, and eliminate environmental restraints on the private sector. But these are not done deals, and there are ways of pushing back.
CONTINUE READINGThe California Car Waiver and the Congressional Review Act
Trump has found a possible way to end run California’s legal arguments for the waiver. But there’s no reason to give up.
If the CRA resolution does go through, California should wait until after the midterms, when Democrats are favored to take the House, and then try again with different formulated regulations. When the Trump Administration rejects them, it could then litigate whether the new versions were “substantially the same” as the old ones.
CONTINUE READINGAll the President’s Men
The people occupying environment and energy positions will be anti-regulatory and pro-fossil fuel.
There will be a lot of dramatic fireworks on Day One of Trump’s second term, literally and figuratively. Yet his 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 advisors.
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 …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Economics of Civil Service Abolitionism
Would elimination of civil service protection increase government efficiency? Probably not.
Economists have been thinking a long time about why employers sometimes grant job security and often adopt seniority systems. It seems likely that, all else aside, Schedule F will degrade the general quality of government workers. It’s not at all clear that the efficiency benefits of threatening people with firing are enough to outweigh having a less capable and less experienced workforce.
CONTINUE READINGA Trumped-Up Energy Emergency
We have weathered past threats to energy security through democratic processes, not by executive fiat.
The Executive Order has fabricated an energy emergency and is doubly wrongheaded. First, as the statistics bear out, there is neither a domestic energy emergency nor an energy crisis. The U.S. has effectively secured energy independence. More significantly, Trump’s politically driven, fossil fuel-dependent energy portfolio is neither diversified nor economically sound.
CONTINUE READINGPresidential Blitzkrieg: Good Tactics, Questionable Strategy
Flooding the zone has short-term benefits but possible long-term costs.
Trump has issued a flood of executive orders. Many of those actions relate to energy and 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 shirt-ternm success doesn’t always translate into long-term gains.
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 …
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CONTINUE READINGTrump’s Offshore Wind Ban vs. China’s Wind Juggernaut
Why is the Trump administration kneecapping the U.S. offshore wind industry while China becomes a global giant?
This January, when I was in Beijing for a workshop at Tsinghua University on offshore wind, presentation after presentation from Chinese experts revealed just how China has become an absolute juggernaut in offshore wind. Professors from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Tsinghua walked us through the governance structure — state planning, targets, industrial …
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