Earth Day is today
The first Earth Day was on April 20th, 1970 ("Earth Day, Part 2: April 22nd," 2024). How are we doing?
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Not well, with the Trump Administration.
Illustration: transitioning from fossil fuels to cleaner energy. Vox.
Coal power plant. Wikipedia photo by Sam Nash.1. Repudiation of climate change science ("Earth Day 2025: How the Trump administration's policies will impact global decarbonization." ABC News).
2. Promote a fossil fuel economy rather than a renewable energy paradigm. During the first Trump Administration the Economist suggested this was a backwards rather than a forward looking approach ("America’s domination of oil and gas will not cow China"). This is a classic example of the Gerschenkron theory of economic backwardness being an advantage for later blooming economies as they can adopt the latest technology without worrying so much about sunk costs. ("New report details long-term challenges to US energy dominance," Midland Reporter-Telegram, "The road to energy dominance is not paved with coal," The Hill).
Also see "Clean energy breakthroughs could save the world. How do we create more of them?," Vox.
From the second article:
Market forces have been phasing out coal for the last decade in favor of cheaper electricity sources. Coal’s decline has been steady, regardless of which party sits in the Oval Office. When President Trump took office in 2016, coal represented 30 percent of total U.S. electricity generation. By his first term’s end, and despite efforts to prop up the industry, that share had plummeted to 20 percent.
A recent series of executive orders throw a federal kitchen sink at bolstering this energy resource, which markets deem uneconomic, while simultaneously declaring an energy emergency. But the White House cannot erase energy market realities by presidential fiat.
Executive orders cannot change the fundamental economics of coal-fired power plants, nor can they alter states’ authority over electric generation facilities, which Congress delineated in the Federal Power Act. The orders also will not bring new coal plants online within the next four years, because their time horizon from investment to build, interconnection, and operation is far longer.
3. Trump Administration will disallow states from imposing regulations on American energy projects ("Trump’s New Way to Kill Regulations: Because I Say So," New York Times)
President Trump this week directed 10 federal agencies — including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission — to implement a novel procedure to scrap a wide array of longstanding energy and environmental regulations.
He told agencies that oversee everything from gas pipelines to power plants to insert “sunset” provisions that would cause regulations to automatically expire by October 2026. If the agencies wanted to keep a rule, it could only be extended for a maximum of five years at a time.
Experts say the directive faces enormous legal hurdles. But it was one of three executive orders from Mr. Trump on Wednesday in which he declared that he was pursuing new shortcuts to weaken or eliminate regulations.
The article goes on to discuss how the regulatory process for creating rules works, and that Trump's order is counter to administrative law.
4. With an increase in the number of extreme weather events ("Extreme Weather and Climate Change," NASA), the Trump Administration is calling for an end of FEMA providing disaster planning grants to states ("Trump administration ends key grant program that helps communities prepare for disasters," AP). From the article:
In a news release Friday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it was ending the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, calling the move part of efforts to eliminate “waste, fraud and abuse.”
“The BRIC program was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program. It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters,” the agency said in a statement.
In addition to ending the program going forward, FEMA said it was also cancelling all applications to the program from 2020 to 2023 and that money that was awarded as part of grants but not already distributed would be immediately returned to the federal government.
Not to mention the gutting of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the agency that includes the National Weather Service ("The costs of Trump’s NOAA science purge," Politico, "Trump administration has set Noaa on ‘non-science trajectory’, workers warn," Guardian).
5. End Environmental Justice Programs. These programs address harms caused by the location of polluting firms in low income communities ("EPA to fire or reassign more than 450 staffers working on environmental justice, DEI" Washington Post).
6. Defund National Parks. Not only does this make visiting national parks more difficult. Scientific research programs are being gutted ("Former rangers worry what Trump’s cuts will mean for Utah’s national parks," KUER/NPR).
7. Increased cutting of trees in US Forest Service lands ("USDA Opens 59% of Federal Forest for Logging to Manage Fire Risk," Bloomberg). Plus defunding the agency and cutting science projects. Given the increase in the geographic spread and virulence of wildfire, the cuts extend to personnel who respond to wildfires ("‘Crazy’: Forest Service cuts ignite fear, fury over wildfire risks," Politico).
The Ocean County wildfire covered 8,500 acres and led to about 3,000 residents being evacuated, according to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service. Photo: New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.Wildfires in states are an increasing problem ("N.J. wildfire swells to 11,500 acres, could become biggest in two decades," Philadelphia Inquirer).
8. Considering denying nonprofit status to environmental advocacy groups ("Trump Officials Weigh Earth Day Move Against Green Groups," Bloomberg) as it's already cutting grants to such groups without authorization from Congress ("EPA’s Decision to Scrap $20bn in Climate Grants Based on ‘Inaccurate, Politicized’ Claims, Says Grantee," Earth.org).
There have been weekly demonstrations at Tesla showrooms across the country, including damage to buildings and cars.9. Bonus: Elon Musk's destruction of government as a shock troop of Trump is harming the electric car producer, Tesla ("As Tesla profits plunge 71%, Elon Musk says he'll spend less time on DOGE," NPR). Note even better than electric cars is not driving and...
10. The Trump Administration is deemphasizing transit funding and multi-mobility transportation policies("States push to shift road funds to transit and bike projects as Trump threatens cuts," AP).
The Administration is threatening New York State transportation funding because the State won't accede to demands that New York City end congestion pricing ("Trump official threatens New York governor over halt of congestion pricing," Guardian).
The Administration also cut a planning grant to Texas for high speed passenger railroad service, calling it savings for taxpayers (press release).
This photo is actually from Canada. X photo.Most transit agencies across the country are facing massive cuts in service, because of federal disinterest in providing funds.
11. Bonus: More generally, Republicans are pretty much against public investment and the concept of public goods ("Boebert wants to pull the brakes on federal funding for proposed Front Range passenger rail project," Denver ABC7 ). During the Biden Administration plenty of Republicans took credit for projects in their districts that they voted against.
Labels: civic engagement, global warming-climate change-drought, green-environment-urban, sustainable land use and resource planning
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Report finds wildfires, heat have worsened Wisconsin air quality in recent year
https://www.wpr.org/news/report-wildfires-heat-worsened-air-quality-wisconsin
4/25/25
How Pennsylvania is imagining what our energy future could look like
In a world with a constantly changing energy picture, officials try to plan for every scenario, from aliens to wars
https://www.post-gazette.com/business/powersource/2025/04/04/energy-pennsylvania-future-planning/stories/202503280090
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