Four Big Climate and Energy Moves Included in Trump’s Day One Executive Orders

President Trump issued a slew of energy policies and efforts to roll back environmental protections on his first day in office.

The moves excited supporters and the fossil fuel industry. American Petroleum Institute (API) President and CEO Mike Sommers, for example, said in a written statement that Trump’s moves “mark a new path where America’s oil and natural gas are taken , are not restricted.”

But it worried environmentalists, who warned the orders would ultimately be bad for the planet.

“The issue at play is maximizing both supply and demand for fossil fuels, which is precisely the opposite of what we need to do to address the climate crisis,” said Michael Gerrard, founder of the Sabin Center for Climate from Columbia Law School. Change the law, he told The Hill.

These are some of the measures that can have the most impact.

Blocking of new wind energy projects

Trump on Mondayissued an executive orderwhich prevented the government from auctioning rights to build offshore wind farms and also temporarily blocked new rights for wind on public land.

In addition, the order directs the Department of the Interior to stop the construction of awind farm in Idahowhich was passed under the Biden administration.

Trump has long criticized wind as an energy source, calling windmills ugly and claiming they have killed birds. according toWITHwind turbines can kill birds, but less than house cats and fossil fuels.

Both the wind industry and climate advocates expressed concern about the order, noting that it could disrupt the industry and prevent carbon-free power generation.

“In any emerging industry, even minor delays can lead to setbacks for several years, leading to bottlenecks and higher costs that ultimately affect energy consumers,” said Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, in a written statement.

Senator Martin Heinrich (DN.M.) wasamong the criticsof the action, writing on social platform X that it would “increase the cost of energy, kill thousands of skilled jobs and threaten billions of dollars of planned investment in rural communities.”

Offshore wind also has particularly high potential for power production because the areas off the coast where it is generated are particularly windy, have plenty of space and don’t have to contend with angry landowners, Gerrard said. .

“There’s a lot of offshore capacity,” he said.

Reviewing the EPA’s finding that climate change is dangerous

anotherexecutive orderTrump signed orders for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to review its 2009 finding that climate change is dangerous, a key policy that underlies many of the agency’s regulations.

In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA has the authority to regulate the planet-warming gases if it determines they pose a threat to public health. In 2009, he did just that, saying that greenhouse gases “endanger both the public health and the public welfare of present and future generations.”

Some observers said the order was an attempt to undermine climate rules en masse

Stan Meiburg, who was acting No. 2 at the EPA during the Obama administration, told The Hill by email that overturning the finding would mean greenhouse gases “would no longer be recognized as pollutants within the meaning of that term in the Clean Air Act.” and therefore the Law would not apply to them”.

He added that this could lead to the undoing of a number of climate regulations, “with a particular impact” on regulations affecting cars and power plants.

Gerrard said that if the administration succeeds in overturning the endangerment finding, it would be “devastating” because “it’s the basis of almost all of the EPA’s actions on climate change.”

However, he expressed skepticism about whether any attempt to do so would succeed.

“I think that would be a fool’s errand,” he said.

“When the endangerment finding was first published in 2009, there was a very large body of scientific evidence supporting it, and it was called into question, and the D.C. Circuit almost laughed at it because of the amount of scientific evidence,” he added. “Today there is much more scientific evidence.”

Actions to accelerate fossil fuel infrastructure

Trump’s orders made a series of moves aimed at speeding up both specific fossil fuel projects and infrastructure projects in general.

The actions, which include thedeclaration of “national energy emergency”as well asorders aimed at strengthening oil and gas drillingit can not only expand the country’s fossil fuel production, but also restrict its consideration of the environment during the construction process.

Jackson Ewing, director of energy and climate policy at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability, said Trump’s emergency declaration could be among the most impactful policies in this category.

The order was invoked under the National Emergencies Act, which gives the president emergency powers. Trump’s team said the powers it unlocked would allow the administration to boost energy production.

“The biggest thing it unlocks is faster leasing, siting and permitting for oil and gas production,” Ewing said.

“It’s trying to really speed up fossil fuel exploration and production by removing impediments or trying to speed up processes that are currently slow,” he added, noting that laws protecting water and endangered species ‘extinction are among those aimed at by the order.

In addition, another of the executive orders says that when considering projects under a basic law that require environmental reviews, federal agencies must “prioritize efficiency and certainty over any other objective.”

Blocking Biden’s climate cash

Another of the main provisions hidden in along orderis a directive to “halt disbursement” of funds that come from the Democrats’ signature climate law, as well as the bipartisan Infrastructure Act.

The laws earmarked billions for clean energy projects and incentives, including tax credits for renewable energy and the purchase of electric vehicles. The Biden administration already disbursed much of the funding, run to get money out the door in his last months.

But freezing more funds from the laws could still have a noticeable impact.

“It’s directly interfering with the way the Inflation Reduction Act works to help incentivize the clean energy transition,” said Sam Sankar, senior vice president of programs at Earthjustice.

Sankar noted that climate law in particular covers “a huge range of things,” from monitoring air pollution to tax credits for low-carbon energy sources.

Ewing also noted that the law allows the Department of Energy to disburse loans to climate-friendly energy projects.

He said even a temporary pause in funding under the laws Biden signed could lead to less investment in the industries the laws are designed to support.

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