The Trump administration has increased its efforts this week to erode the progress of the climate nationally with a radical executive decree aimed at undermining the ability of states to define their own environmental policies, including key elements of the fight against climate change in California.
In an order dated April 8, the president directed Atty. General PAM Bondi to identify and “stop the application of” laws of states that deal with climate change and other environmental initiatives.
“Many states have promulgated or are promulgating” energy change “climate change”, heavy and ideologically motivated which threaten the domination of American energy and our economic and national security, “the president wrote in the decree.
“These laws and policies of states are fundamentally irreconcilable with the objective of my administration to release American energy,” he wrote. “They shouldn’t stand up.”
The affirmation of the federal power on the rights of the States seems to go against some of the other positions of Trump – he campaigned, for example, on the rights of the state for questions such as abortion. The order calls for several states in particular, notably New York and the Vermont, which he accuses of “extorting” fossil fuel companies for their contributions from the warming gases of warming.
The order also targets the California ceiling and exchange program – a primary initiative of its kind which sets limits to the greenhouse gas emissions of companies and allows them to sell “credits” for unused programs to other companies.
“California, for example, punishes the use of carbon by adopting impossible ceilings on the number of carbon companies can use, which forced companies to pay significant sums to” negotiate “carbon credits to meet the radical requirements of California,” the president wrote.
The executive decree marks a continuation of the recent anti -environmental efforts of Trump, which included reductions to grant funding, generalized office closings and dismissals in the climate research community, has loosened renewed regulations and efforts to extend oil and coal production – two sectors that contribute to global warming.
He also marks an escalation of Trump’s conflict with California. In recent months, the president has particularly targeted democratic bastion, in particular by threatening to suspend disaster aid for the response and restoration of state forest fires concerning questions such as forest management and water policies.
“There is a little beef right now between Trump and the State,” said Maggie Coulter, main lawyer at the Institute of Climate Law of the non -profit center for biological diversity. “I think that wanting to call California is part of the reason why Cap and Trade was mentioned.”
The ceiling and trade are not the only Californian program that could be in the reticlations of the federal government. The ordinance orders Bondi to seek and prioritize the laws of states that deal with climate change, environmental justice, greenhouse gas emissions and carbon taxes, which is “a bit like a laundry list of all the things that the oil and gas industry does not like,” said Coulter.
To this end, the decree may also affect California’s ability to establish strict exhaust pipes and its efforts to move to electric vehicles, including a state law prohibiting the sale of new gas cars in 2035.
The Trump administration has already made measures to block this law, which now takes place in the courts.
The decree could also have an impact on the California Polluters Pay Pay Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025, a bill which was currently making its way thanks to the legislature of the State which would oblige fossil fuel companies to pay the damage caused by their greenhouse gas emissions. It is similar to legislation in New York and Vermont that Trump called in his order, said Coulter.
The blocking of these laws would be likely to create immunity for the fossil fuels industry of these damage, much like the protections that protect the manufacturers of firearms from certain civil lawsuits, according to Cassidy Dipola, director of communications with Make Pollutes Pay, a campaign for climate responsibility.
“The executive order of President Trump arms the Ministry of Justice against states such as California who want to charge polluters for climate damage,” Dipola wrote in a statement. “This is the despair of the fossil fuels industry in its own right – they are so afraid to face proofs of their deception in court that they convinced the president to launch a federal attack on state sovereignty.”
Indeed, the petroleum and gas industry celebrated the order – issued the same week that the president also ordered the immediate expansion of coal production in the country, in particular by opening federal land for the rental of coal and extending the lifespan of existing coal power plants.
“We welcome the action of President Trump to keep states like New York and California responsible for having continued unconstitutional efforts that illegally penalize producers of American oil and natural gas for the delivery of energy to American consumers on the days,” read a declaration by Ryan Meyers, main vice-president of the American Petroleum Institute.
The Trump administration said that its multitude of environmental decline is aimed at facilitating regulatory costs, reducing taxes and extending the creation of “affordable and reliable internal energy supply”.
“In simple terms, the Americans are better off when the United States dominated energy,” said Trump’s decree.
The order gives Bondi 60 days to compile a list of applicable state climate laws and subject a report to the President concerning the measures taken, as well as recommendations for additional legislative measures necessary to stop the application of these state laws.
Coulter, of the Law Institute climate, said that in fact preventing it from applying their laws would be an illegal and unconstitutional excess.
“It’s not really something Trump or the Attorney General can do,” said Coulter. “If you want to stop the application of the law of the State, you must go to court, and it is the court of the court.”
If the administration really tried to prevent states from enforcing their own laws, she said, legal proceedings and disputes are almost certain to get involved.
California Daily Newspapers
