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Trump Allies Near ‘Total Victory’ in Wiping Out U.S. Climate Regulation
Here's some heavily abridged excerpts from Mark's New York Times report. I recommend checking out the entire report, which is very detailed.
Trump Allies Near ‘Total Victory’ in Wiping Out U.S. Climate Regulation
A small group of conservative activists has worked for 16 years to stop all government efforts to fight climate change. Their efforts seem poised to pay off.
In the summer of 2022, Democrats in Congress were racing to pass the biggest climate law in the country’s history. But behind the scenes, four Trump administration veterans were plotting to obliterate federal climate efforts once Republicans regained control in Washington, according to more than a dozen people familiar with the matter.
Two of them, Russell T. Vought and Jeffrey B. Clark, drafted executive orders for the next Republican president to dismantle climate initiatives. The other two collected an “arsenal of information” to chip away at the scientific consensus that the planet is warming.
The overwhelming majority of scientists around the world agree that carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases are dangerously heating the planet and supercharging storms, droughts, heat waves and sea level rise, directly contradicting the four conservatives.
Their efforts are now paying off: the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to revoke a determination that has underpinned the federal government’s ability to fight global warming since 2009. That scientific conclusion, known as the endangerment finding, determined that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare. It required the federal government to regulate these gases, which result from the burning of oil, gas and coal.
In revoking that determination, the Trump administration would erase limits on greenhouse gases from cars, power plants and industries that generate the planet-warming pollution. “We are pretty close to total victory,” said Myron Ebell, who helped the first Trump administration set up its operations at the E.P.A. and has been attacking climate science and policies for nearly three decades.
“No amount of outside public support would have done anything if there hadn’t been those four people: Russ and Jeff and John and Mandy,” he said.
Still, some conservative activists who insisted that the threat of climate change was overblown kept up the fight during the Biden years. One of them was Ms. Gunasekara, who served as E.P.A. chief of staff during Mr. Trump’s first term and wrote the E.P.A. chapter in Project 2025.
The Heritage Foundation eventually agreed to fund some of this work, although it is unclear whether the group provided the full $2 million, according to two people familiar with the matter. Ms. Gunasekara said in a text message that she was “extremely proud of the work I and others produced at the Heritage Foundation to rebut junk science and expose the Green New Scam.”
In 2022, under Mr. Vought’s supervision, Mr. Clark drafted executive orders that a future president could use to swiftly scrap Mr. Biden’s climate policies, according to two people familiar with the matter. He also brainstormed legal arguments that the future administration could use to repeal the endangerment finding.
Mr. Clark has called climate initiatives part of a plot to “control” Americans” and to undermine the U.S. economy. He has called environmentalists a “crazy climate cult. He is “an ideologue with very, very strong views that E.P.A. shouldn’t regulate greenhouse gases,” said a professor of environmental law at Harvard Law School.
At the time that he was hired by Mr. Vought, Mr. Clark was facing a criminal investigation in connection with Mr. Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. President Trump preemptively pardoned Mr. Clark in November and the Georgia case was dismissed. With Mr. Trump’s return to the White House last year, Mr. Clark became the government’s top regulatory official as the acting head of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Mr. Vought is once again the White House budget director and Mr. Clark’s boss.
A spokeswoman for the White House Office of Management and Budget declined to make Mr. Clark available for an interview or respond to questions about his work. She said in a statement that Trump administration officials were “working in lock step to execute on the president’s deregulation agenda.”
Neil Chatterjee, a Republican who led the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in the first Trump administration, said conservative activists had helped sustain the fight against the endangerment finding even after businesses backed out. “It’s not the corporate interests,” Mr. Chatterjee said, adding, “It’s the pure ideological activists who believe that climate change is a hoax, who believe that this was about transferring wealth and driving socialism and destroying renewable energy and promoting left-wing ideology.”
“This is their moment,” Mr. Chatterjee said.
Comment: No, we decline to make Mr. Clark available for an interview or respond to questions about his work: citizens and taxpayers have no right to question anything or anyone in our administration.
I'm wondering if it will even be possible to ever mitigate this attack on science and reality.
Maybe not in our lifetimes? The American public of the political Right is demonstrably susceptible to that thing called "Stoopid." Their confirmation bias is lately being reinforced. Like a concrete reinforced bunker.
“....extremely proud of the work I and others produced at the Heritage Foundation to rebut junk science and expose the Green New Scam.”
The Heritage Foundation is simply evil. They are aligned with the current regime. Anti-abortion, the Christian far-right, mass deportations, anti-science, etc.
Many may know this, but the IPCC is the de facto body of knowledge on climate change. It is made up of more than 300 scientists collecting and collating over 14,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies. Then summarizing the findings.
There is no "junk science" involved there. And no source that can refute their findings.
From Heather Cox Richardson's newsletter. Bolded text added.
"In a ceremony at the White House yesterday, surrounded by coal industry leaders, lawmakers, and miners, President Donald J. Trump was presented with a trophy that calls him 'the undisputed champion of beautiful, clean coal.' At the event, Trump signed an executive order directing the Defense Department to buy billions of dollars of power produced by coal and decried 'the Radical Left’s war on the industry.' Anna Betts of The Guardian noted that Trump also announced the Department of Energy will spend $175 million to 'modernize, retrofit, and extend' the life of coal-fired power plants in West Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, and Kentucky."
"Today, the Environmental Protection Agency revoked the scientific finding that has been the basis for regulating emissions from cars and power plants since 2009. That finding, called the endangerment finding, reflects the consensus of scientists that greenhouse gases produced by burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas endanger the health and general welfare of the American people."
"The Trump administration says scientists are wrong about the dangers of climate change and that the regulations hurt industry and slow the economy. It claims ending the rule will save Americans $1.3 trillion, primarily through cheaper cars and trucks, but it did not factor in the costs of extreme weather caused by climate change or the costs of pollution-related health issues."
There are not going to be cheaper cars and/or trucks, due to U.S. regulation changes. No producer of such vehicles is going to sacrifice all of their international sales for a few more U.S. sales. No foreign producer, even manufacturing here, is going to sell cars without emissions controls. Anyone who believes that is going to happen is ignorant.
It'll probably take the Ohio river catching fire again or the Hudson and East rivers being lifeless again to be reversed. Maybe when LA smog is worse than Beijing smog again. When will these Neanderthals' learn?
The mere fact that these people are rolling the dice with their children and grandchildren is positively insane. Vaccines, the climate, democracy, even U.S. global economic supremacy.
They have no plan and are endangering their own offspring. To believe that anyone in this administration has a real plan is ludicrous. Their policy is being driven by unqualified nitwits and angry failures.
The people at the top will be insulated against the worst of it with wealth. Most of the people voting for this will get crushed.
The only junk science was the crap the chosen three, I think it was, perennial denier morons put out in record time (it was one or two months, I think) last year to "rebut" all the mountain ranges of data climate scientists all over the world have amassed.
Myron Ebell. Horrible excuse for a human being. Did anyone ever listen to the pathetic Warren Olney talk program early this century on public radio? Warren was the ultimate bothsider, and Myron was his go-to denier who appeared fairly frequently on the program.
Makes my blood boil remembering those crappy, stupid programs.
Comments
Trump Allies Near ‘Total Victory’ in Wiping Out U.S. Climate Regulation
A small group of conservative activists has worked for 16 years to stop all government efforts to fight climate change. Their efforts seem poised to pay off.
Comment: No, we decline to make Mr. Clark available for an interview or respond to questions about his work: citizens and taxpayers have no right to question anything or anyone in our administration.
I'm wondering if it will even be possible to ever mitigate this attack on science and reality.
Project 2025 = Evil.
There is no "junk science" involved there. And no source that can refute their findings.
https://www.ipcc.ch/
Bolded text added.
"In a ceremony at the White House yesterday, surrounded by coal industry leaders,
lawmakers, and miners, President Donald J. Trump was presented with a trophy
that calls him 'the undisputed champion of beautiful, clean coal.' At the event,
Trump signed an executive order directing the Defense Department to buy billions
of dollars of power produced by coal and decried 'the Radical Left’s war on the industry.'
Anna Betts of The Guardian noted that Trump also announced the Department of Energy
will spend $175 million to 'modernize, retrofit, and extend' the life of coal-fired power plants
in West Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, and Kentucky."
"Today, the Environmental Protection Agency revoked the scientific finding that has been the basis
for regulating emissions from cars and power plants since 2009.
That finding, called the endangerment finding, reflects the consensus of scientists
that greenhouse gases produced by burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas
endanger the health and general welfare of the American people."
"The Trump administration says scientists are wrong about the dangers of climate change
and that the regulations hurt industry and slow the economy. It claims ending the rule will save
Americans $1.3 trillion, primarily through cheaper cars and trucks, but it did not factor in the costs
of extreme weather caused by climate change or the costs of pollution-related health issues."
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-12-2026
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1830698974255647
They have no plan and are endangering their own offspring. To believe that anyone in this administration has a real plan is ludicrous. Their policy is being driven by unqualified nitwits and angry failures.
The people at the top will be insulated against the worst of it with wealth. Most of the people voting for this will get crushed.
I certainly hope so. Darwin may yet save the day.
Trump wanted to appoint him Atty General but the entire staff at DOJ said they would quit
Myron Ebell. Horrible excuse for a human being. Did anyone ever listen to the pathetic Warren Olney talk program early this century on public radio? Warren was the ultimate bothsider, and Myron was his go-to denier who appeared fairly frequently on the program.
Makes my blood boil remembering those crappy, stupid programs.