Donald Trump

  • EPA administrator Scott Pruitt  [photo from 2014]

    Scott Pruitt, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, has had a very busy schedule since being confirmed to lead the agency set up to protect America's air, water, and land from pollution. Unlike his predecessors, Pruitt—a climate-science denier and aggressive advocate of fossil fuels—has largely ignored environmental groups and public-health advocates in his months at the EPA. Instead, he has met almost exclusively with countless heads of fossil-fuel and manufacturing industries, whose activities the agency has traditionally regulated. DON'T MISS: Trump EPA to hold unneeded...

  • Containers holding spent nucleat fuel [Nuclear Regulatory Commission photo]
    Fossil-fuel lobbyists join renewable peers against DoE coal, nuclear support plans

    Pity Energy Secretary Rick Perry, the man now running the cabinet department he couldn't remember that he wanted to eliminate altogether during a notorious 2011 presidential debate. He has pulled off an unusual feat, by uniting lobbyists for fossil-fuel interests with their counterparts advocating...

  • Chrome exhaust pipe
    Comment period ends tomorrow on EPA proposal to loosen emission limits on cars

    The period for public comments on the EPA's proposed reconsideration of finalized rules to cut emissions of the climate-change gas carbon dioxide from light-duty vehicles will end on Thursday, October 5. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on August 10 it would reopen the Comment...

  • Electric power plant outside Ithaca, New York
    Coming this week: Trump EPA's plan to neuter Clean Power Plan

    Donald Trump's White House appears to be readying another of its next big climate change overhauls, and like many of the administration's plans, it will weaken or eliminate regulations on industry. Specifically, President Trump touted the undoing of the Clean Power Plan at a rally in Huntsville...

  • 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor
    What will happen to U.S. fuel-economy rules through 2025? Poll results

    With the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president last November, it became clear that the regulatory environment for businesses would change once he took office. Indeed, dozens of regulations limiting corporate activities involving emissions, fossil-fuel exploration, hiring and firing, and a host...

  • U.S. Capitol Building
    States to force emission, fuel-economy rules showdown with Trump Administration?

    Continuing political turmoil and news coverage of the Trump Administration haven't stopped the president's agency heads from drastically reshaping policies on energy, the environment, and emissions. Comments are now being taken on the reopened EPA limits on vehicular carbon emissions for 2022...

  • Oil field (Image: Flickr user johnny choura, used under CC license)

    Efforts to loosen regulations on the oil industry now underway have met with public approval from fossil-fuel companies. But while the Trump administration has moved swiftly to create a more friendly regulatory environment for big oil, some executives have urged a slowdown behind the scenes. That's not for environmental reasons, but due to worries over the possibility of major public backlash should another major incident occur—one akin to the 2010 BP oil spill, perhaps. DON'T MISS: The oil industry doesn't care about electric cars: here's why While the industry welcomes relaxation or...

  • The White House, Washington, D.C.  [Creative Commons license by dcjohn]
    Energy Dept disappoints US coal industry: no order keeping plants open

    The Trump administration has reneged on one aspect of a promise widely discussed throughout the 2016 presidential campaign: reviving the coal industry. President Donald Trump declared the United States coal industry would thrive under his watch, but the Trump administration and the Energy...

  • 2017 Ram 1500 Rebel Blue Streak
    Trump NHTSA might reduce fuel-economy rules for two-thirds of U.S. vehicles

    Consumers all over the world, but especially in North America, are buying more crossover utility vehicles and fewer passenger sedans and hatchbacks. The U.S. auto industry makes the bulk of its profits on light trucks, which include crossovers, pickup trucks, and even minivans. The Trump...

  • Offshore wind farm
    Senate panel rejects clean-energy cuts, boosts DoE funding instead

    The Senate Committee on Appropriations recently exhibited a quality somewhat rare in U.S. politics these days: bipartisanship. The committee released a lengthy report on the 2018 fiscal year budget for the Department of Energy that walks away from the Trump Administration's efforts to defund clean...

  • 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor
    For pickup trucks, more than half all fuel savings come in 2022-2025 CAFE rules

    Sometimes, when science and technology issues have economic or political consequences, incorrect or misleading information and analyses can be propagated through the media, leading both decision makers and the public astray. A piece published in April by Forbes, covering the effects of the 2022...

  • International Paper Company mill, 1973 [From EPA Documerica series]
    Climate change worse, faster than projected, scientists tell Trump in leaked report

    It is abundantly clear that the Trump Administration does not believe in science. In its six months to date, it chose a climate-science denier to lead the Environmental Protection agency; rolled back two dozen regulations limiting air, water, and land pollution; and announced a U.S. withdrawal from...

  • International Paper Company mill, 1973 [From EPA Documerica series]

    The museum at the Environmental Protection Agency may soon be in for an overhaul to reflect the agenda of the Trump administration. It's no secret Scott Pruitt, current EPA administrator and climate-science denier, has worked to deregulate many of the agency's regulatory efforts to promote fossil fuels. That's part of Trump's campaign promise to "bring back jobs" associated with a fuel rapidly declining in global importance: coal. DON'T MISS: EPA to reopen emission-rule review; how important is this step? The EPA museum, according to The Washington Post, may ditch its current display on the...

  • Gas pump
    NHTSA to review gas-mileage rules: could freeze 2021 limits, even roll back (updated)

    The U.S. Department of Transportation said yesterday the NHTSA is preparing to revise corporate average fuel economy requirements for model years 2022 through 2025. The proposed version of those regulations, which was issued by the Obama Administration in 2012, included steady increases for each of...

  • The White House, Washington, D.C.  [Creative Commons license by dcjohn]
    U.S. government climate scientists restricted, sidelined, limited

    Months into Donald Trump's presidency, it is clear the administration has worked diligently to downplay the role of science in setting policy on energy. Some moves to diminish scientists' roles have been more evident than others, but a new report details what has gone on behind the scenes. In...

  • Donald J. Trump in November 2016       [photo: The Trump Organization]
    Trump claims to 'unleash American energy' in speech full of inaccurate claims

    Shortly after announcing his intention to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord, President Donald Trump declared the final week in June to be "Energy Week." In a later speech, Trump called for an energy revolution in the U.S. and vowed to "unleash American energy" to help the...

  • President Donald Trump (Photo courtesy Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons)
    What Trump's 'Energy Week' policies actually mean

    The White House declared this past week "Energy Week" and offered up a few key points on which the Trump administration plans to focus to unleash what it calls a new American dominance in energy. However, neither the initiatives nor the proposed policy changes hone in on where the world is heading...

  • Coal, by Flicker user oatsy40 (Used Under CC License)
    Trump EPA to hold unneeded 'critique' to challenge climate science

    The best analog to EPA administrator Scott Pruitt's latest action might be for the U.S. Geological Survey to undertake a "scientific critique" of theories that the world is round. After all, numerous authoritative sources over the years have raised doubts that the Earth is not flat. Surely their...

  • President Donald Trump (Photo courtesy Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons)

    Thirteen states, at least 80 mayors, and more than 100 businesses will task themselves to meet ambitious climate-change goals—with or without federal participation. The newly formed United States Climate Alliance—which so far has support from more than a dozen states including New York, California, and Massachusetts—says it will collectively buck President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. The group will tackle climate change outside federal purview by submitting its own plan to the United Nations to continue cutting greenhouse emissions...

  • Chevrolet Bolt EV self-driving prototype
    Electric-car noise rules to be canceled under Trump deregulation plan?

    Modern electric cars have been on U.S. roads for seven years or so, and owners love their smooth, quiet, close to noise-free operation. That silence has been a bone of contention for even longer, however, since hybrids operating purely on battery power are similarly quiet. For years, the U.S...

  • Gas pump
    States have battle plan if Trump rolls back fuel-economy, emission rules

    The Trump Administration has had a challenging start on numerous fronts, but its work to slash emission rules and eliminate regulations continues. The EPA administrator, climate-science denier Scott Pruitt, has said he isn't "currently" planning to target California's ability to set its own...

  • Golden Gate Bridge, connecting San Francisco and Marin County, California
    Trump EPA backs away from attacking California emission waiver

    Sometime between March 1 and 7, a specific page vanished from the website of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Amidst coverage of the removal of the word "science" from the mission statement of the EPA's Science and Technology Office, it went largely unnoticed. First posted in December...

  • Photovoltaic solar power field at Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee
    Solar jobs have grown 20 percent a year since 2012; coal, not so much

    Here's a little quiz on a topic much discussed over the past couple of years: jobs. How many people work in the U.S. coal industry? Not just miners, but office staff, too. And, how many people work for solar-energy companies in the U.S.? DON'T MISS: Clean energy provides far more U.S. jobs than...

  • President Donald Trump (Photo courtesy Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons)
    Study Trump cited in Paris pullout speech can't be taken seriously

    In his speech on Thursday announcing that the U.S. would pull out of the Paris climate treaty it signed last fall, President Donald Trump cited a number of statistics of the dire effects that treaty would supposedly have on the U.S. economy. In general, data, statistics, and analysis are...

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