Grist mag: ‘Trump Wins, Planet Loses’ – ‘Poised to upend U.S. climate policy’
With control of the White House and the Senate, Republicans are poised to upend U.S. climate policy.
Donald J. Trump will once again be president of the United States.
The Associated Press called the race for Trump early Wednesday morning, ending one of the costliest and most turbulent campaign cycles in the nation’s history. The results promise to upend U.S. climate policy:
In addition to returning a climate denier to the White House, voters also gave Republicans control of the Senate, laying the groundwork for attacks on everything from electric vehicles to clean energy funding and bolstering support for the fossil fuel industry.
“We have more liquid gold than any country in the world,” Trump said during his victory speech, referring to domestic oil and gas potential. The CEO of the American Petroleum Institute issued a statement saying that “energy was on the ballot, and voters sent a clear signal that they want choices, not mandates.”
The election results rattled climate policy experts and environmental advocates. The president-elect has called climate change “a hoax” and during his most recent campaign vowed to expand fossil fuel production, roll back environmental regulations, and eliminate federal support for clean energy.
He has also said he would scuttle the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, which is the largest investment in climate action in U.S. history and a landmark legislative win for the Biden administration.
Such steps would add billions of tons of additional greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and hasten the looming impacts of climate change.
“This is a dark day,” Ben Jealous, the executive director of the Sierra Club, said in a statement. “Donald Trump was a disaster for climate progress during his first term, and everything he’s said and done since suggests he’s eager to do even more damage this time.”
During his first stint in office, Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement, the 2016 international climate accord that guides the actions of more than 195 countries; rolled back 100-plus environmental rules; and opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.
While President Joe Biden reversed many of those actions and made fighting climate change a centerpiece of his presidency, Trump has pledged to undo those efforts during his second term with potentially enormous implications — climate analysts at Carbon Brief predicted that another four years of Trump would lead to the nation emitting an additional 4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide than it would under his opponent. That’s on par with the combined annual emissions of the European Union and Japan.
While many House races remain too close to call, Republicans have taken control of the Senate. That said, any attempt to roll back the IRA may prove unpopular, because as much as $165 billion in the funding it provides is flowing to Republican districts.
Still, Trump can take unilateral steps to slow spending, and use federal regulatory powers to further hamper the rollout process. As Axios noted, “If Trump wants to shut off the IRA spigot, he’ll likely find ways to do it.” Looking beyond that seminal climate law, Trump has plenty of other levers he can also pull that will adversely affect the environment — efforts that will be easier with a conservative Supreme Court that has already undermined federal climate action.
Any climate chaos that Trump sows is sure to extend beyond the United States. The president-elect could attempt to once again abandon the Paris Agreement, undermining global efforts to address the crisis.
His threat to use tariffs to protect U.S. companies and restore American manufacturing could upend energy markets.
The vast majority of solar panels and electric vehicle batteries, for example, are made overseas and the prices of those imports, as well as other clean-energy technology, could soar. U.S. liquified natural gas producers worry that retaliatory tariffs could hamper their business.
See more here Climatedepot.com
Please Donate Below To Support Our Ongoing Work To Defend The Scientific Method
PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company 
incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX. [paypal-donation
Trackback from your site.
Billy Jack
| #
I am surprised at this editorial by Marc Morano. I’ve followed this site for a few years and appreciated many POVs and posts. But sorry to hear that Marc is unaware of the DOD earth mod campaigns, (officially) started in 1980. Of course there is “Climate Change”. The DOD is changing the climate. Period. PLEASE have Marc do some simple FOIA and USPTO searches on 44 years of patents in weather mod. Its pretty easy to follow: the many alliances supported by the DOD, have been altering weather since 1980. My co-founder of UIA, Inc, was a master planner for NATO and the Pentagon for 40 years. There was no FOIA then. Now, its a pedestrian effort to connect the open and clear patterns; but takes 3,000 man hours to execute. Worth the effort.
Reply
VOWG
| #
The fewer climate alarmists there are the better. The climate is not a problem, people are.
Reply
Lorraine
| #
Human beings have nothing to do with the natural dynamic of climate change.
We are currently in an interglacial period which is a warming trend, followed by cooling and another ice age. The process is ongoing and unalterable.
Reply
Jerry Krause
| #
Hi Lorraine,
You have it right; the natural world is cyclic.”
Have a good day
Reply
DouweH
| #
From the very first day this rock we live on developed an atmosphere the climate has been changing and still is. What most people don’t understand is that our star has absolute control over our climate and local weather conditions. The only other major influencer of our climate is volcanoes, which has been demonstrated more than once just in our lifetime.
Reply
Jerry Krause
| #
Hi DouweH,
“The only other major influencer of our climate is volcanoes, which has been demonstrated more than once just in our lifetime.” Volcanoes are merely a visual product of the GEOTHERMAL ENERGY SOURCE which causes continents to drift.
Have a good day
Reply
S G James
| #
In actual reality the Truth is, God wins and the Earth wins.
The real climate change was infiltrated hijacked by the Globalist Satanic Elites years ago. The real climate change that Professor David Bellamy taught at University and who lost all of his television contracts after exposing the Fake climate lies agendas being pushed by the MSM, BBC news etc. They ruined his career when he started exposing them and replaced him and gave all his television contracts to David Attenbourgh who went along with the Fake Climate Agenda.
If you reverse all the Brainwashing, Lies and Fake News from the BBC (British Brainwashing Corporation) and other MSM Fake news stations then you’ll find out or get closer to the truth.
Reply
Jerry Krause
| #
Hi S G James,
One cannot lie about what one does not KNOW.
Have a good day
Reply