This story was originally published by Grist and is reprinted here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
Hours after being sworn in Monday, President Donald Trump announced a series of executive orders and policies aimed at boosting oil and gas production, rolling back environmental protections, withdrawing from the Paris climate accord and to undo environmental justice initiatives passed by former President Joe. Biden.
Trump has called climate change a “hoax” and named fossil fuel industry executives and climate skeptics to his cabinet. His actions on day one represent a complete overhaul of the country’s climate agenda and set the tone for his administration’s approach to energy and the environment for the next four years.
Among the most significant steps Trump took on Monday was declaring an “energy emergency,” which he touted as part of his efforts to curb inflation and lower the cost of living. He pledged to “use all necessary resources to build critical infrastructure,” an unprecedented step that could grant the White House greater authority to expand fossil fuel production. He also signed an executive order “to encourage energy exploration and production on federal lands and waters,” as well as another expediting permitting and leasing in Alaska, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
“We’re going to have the most oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we’re going to use it,” Trump said during his inaugural address. “We’re going to drill, baby, drill.”
The United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve can store 714 million barrels of crude oil, but currently holds about 395 million. Under his administration, he said, the cache will be “filled to the top again.” He also said the country would export energy “all over the world.”
“We will be a rich nation again,” he said, standing inside the Capitol rotunda, “and it is this liquid gold beneath our feet that will help us.”
Richard Klein, a senior researcher at the nonprofit Stockholm International Environment Institute, noted that fossil fuel companies have extracted record amounts of oil and gas under the Biden administration. Even if it is technologically possible to increase production further, it is not certain that this will reduce prices.
Dan Kammen, an energy professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said it was a “straight-up lie” that increasing fossil fuel extraction would lower inflation. He agreed that the United States should declare a national energy emergency — but for exactly the opposite reasons than Trump had in mind. “We need to move quickly to clean energy and invest in new businesses across the United States,” Kammen told Grist.
Exit (again) from the Paris agreement
Trump kept his promise to once again withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate accord, the United Nations pact agreed by 195 countries to limit global warming, which the new president on Monday called a “scam “. In addition to signing an executive order stating that the United States would leave the agreement – titled “Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements” – Trump also signed a letter to the United Nations to begin the withdrawal. Due to the rules governing the deal, it will take a year for it to formally withdraw, meaning U.S. negotiators will participate in the next round of negotiations in Brazil at the end of the year. However, by next year, the United States could join Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only countries not part of the deal.
“It simply makes no sense for the United States to willingly abandon its political influence and pass up opportunities to shape the explosive green energy market,” said Ani Dasgupta, president and CEO of the Institute of non-profit global resources, in a press release. Only two in ten Americans favor leaving the Paris agreement, according to an Associated Press poll.
Trump’s announcement comes just ten days after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared 2024 the hottest year on Earth, marked by potentially deadly heat waves, wildfires and flooding around the world. entire. Experts say the situation will only get worse if the United States and other countries do not do more to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
“Much of the very fabric of life on Earth is in peril,” climatologists wrote last October. They then noted, even before Trump’s election, that global policies are expected to cause temperatures to rise by 2.7 degrees Celsius (6.9 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100. A Carbon Brief analysis estimated that a second Trump administration would result in an additional 4 billion tons. of climate pollution, negating all the emissions savings resulting from the global deployment of clean energy technologies over the past five years – twice as much.
Reversal of course on electric vehicles
Trump also took steps to revoke “the electric vehicle mandate,” in line with his campaign promise to support autoworkers.
“In other words, you will be able to buy the vehicle you want,” he said during his inaugural speech, even though there is no national mandate requiring the sale of electric vehicles and consumers are free to purchase the vehicle of their choice. . The Biden administration has promoted this technology by finalizing rules that limit exhaust pollution over time, so that electric vehicles make up the majority of automobiles sold by 2032. Under Joe Biden, the United States also launched a $7,500 tax credit for consumer purchases of electric vehicles. manufactured domestically and planned to spend around $7.5 billion building charging infrastructure across the country.
“Reducing incentives to build electric vehicles in the United States is going to cost jobs and raise the price of travel,” said Costa Samaras, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, who served as one top policy makers at Carnegie Mellon University. the Biden White House. “Fueling up an electric vehicle costs between a third and half as much as driving on gasoline, not to mention the benefits in reducing air pollution. Ultimately, to lower the price of energy for American consumers, we must diversify the energy sources we use and ensure they are clean, affordable, and reliable.
Roll back environmental justice initiatives
Trump signed a single executive order reversing nearly 80 Biden administration initiatives, including rescinding a directive to federal agencies to integrate environmental justice into their missions. Biden-era policy has protected communities burdened by pollution and directed agencies to work more closely with them.
The move was part of a broader initiative that Trump described in his inaugural address as an attempt to create a “color-blind society” by preventing the government from “trying to socially integrate race and gender into every aspect of public and private life. Klein said the target was “embarrassing.” Kammen said it was a “huge mistake” to move away from environmental justice priorities.
Trump has officially banned new offshore wind leases and will review federal permits for wind projects, fulfilling his promise to “end the leasing of massive wind farms that degrade our natural landscapes and fail to serve America’s energy consumers “. This decision risks encountering resistance from members of his own party. The top four wind energy producing states – Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma and Kansas – are solidly red and unlikely to acquiesce. Even Trump’s pick for Interior secretary, Doug Burgum, refused to disavow wind power at a hearing last week, saying he would pursue an “all of the above” energy strategy.
Many state and local policymakers, including members of America Is All In, a climate coalition made up of government and business leaders from all 50 states, have committed to taking on the role of climate action in the absence of federal leadership.
“Regardless of the federal government’s actions, climate mayors are not abandoning our commitment to the Paris Agreement,” Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said in a statement. “Our voters expect us to deliver and provide them with meaningful solutions. »
