Moments after taking office, the new president Donald Trump issued a flurry of orders ripping up rules to protect the climate and natural world.
The broad roll back of climate policy, much of it advanced under Joe Biden’s previous administration, aims to maximise oil and gas production and lower household energy bills.
Mr Trump vowed to “end Biden’s policies of climate extremism”.
Environmental groups have said they intend to challenge the orders, and it’s uncertain how effectively they will boost US fossil fuels, given levels are already at a record high.
Mr Trump has long called climate change a “hoax”, including in November, despite scientific consensus that it is man-made.
But his plan to “unleash American energy” included a commitment to “guarantee that all executive departments and agencies provide opportunity for public comment and rigorous, peer-reviewed scientific analysis”.
Withdrawing from landmark Paris Agreement on climate
Long promised, now reality: Donald Trump is pulling the US, the second-biggest climate polluter in the world, out of the most important global treaty for tackling climate change.
“I’m immediately withdrawing from the unfair, one-sided Paris climate accord rip-off,” he said.
Struck in 2015, the Paris Agreement was the first time countries agreed to collectively tackle global warming.
Trump’s move does away with any obligations on the US government to cut planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions, and will take a year to come into effect.
Ditching it is more symbolic than anything, as the treaty can’t force countries to act. Meanwhile, some state governors have vowed to continue with regional climate action.
But the move will make it even harder to reach the Paris Agreement’s core goal of limiting warming to 1.5C to 2C above levels before mass fossil fuels even harder to reach.
Scientists were already warning the chances were “virtually zero”.
Cutting off cash incentives for green industries / undoing Biden’s green funding law, the IRA
Another headline-grabbing order was his immediate pause on funding for green industries, that was disbursed via Biden’s signature green legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act.
Trump refers to this as the “Green New Deal” or “Green New Scam”.
All agencies must “immediately pause the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022” the document said.
The act sought to encourage clean energy technologies like wind and solar through tax credits, which have attracted billions of dollars in new manufacturing and project investments.
Biden attempted to protect the majority of that funding last week by signing off contracts to commit the money.
Declaring a national energy emergency
Paving the war for a barrage of pro-fossil fuel actions to “unleash” already booming US energy production, the president also declared a national energy emergency, which gives him extra executive powers.
His administration is anxious about meeting the energy demands of AI, a booming industry.
The declaration seeks to roll back environmental restrictions on power plants, speed up construction of new plants, and ease permitting for transmission and pipeline projects.
“It allows you to do whatever you’ve got to do to get ahead of that problem,” Trump told reporters while signing the order. “And we do have that kind of an emergency.”
He also promised to fill up strategic oil reserves and export US energy all over the world.
Lifting a freeze on LNG export permitting
The “national energy emergency” also included undoing a pause on gas exports issued by Biden last year.
A report commissioned by the previous administration concluded in December that “unfettered exports of LNG” could soon outpace global demand, and would also increase domestic wholesale and household costs.
Promoting oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and Alaska
Biden’s efforts to protect vast Arctic lands and waters from fossil fuel extraction were also on the chopping block.
He rescinded a 2023 memo that stopped drilling across millions of acres.
“We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it,” the new president said.
With another order to “UNLEASH ALASKA’S EXTRAORDINARY RESOURCE POTENTIAL”, Trump hopes to “maximise the development and production of the natural resources” on state and federal lands in Alaska.
The order will accelerate permitting and “prioritise the development of Alaska’s liquified natural gas (LNG) potential”.
It’s unclear if the moves will be enough to attract oil majors, who have previously shied away from the region due to high costs.
Putting people over fish
Another memo vows to “Putting People over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern
California“.
He hopes to solve California’s complex water problems by undoing protections on a species of fish called the delta smelt, protections he says divert precious water from human use.
Stopping wind farm leases
On the campaign trail, Trump railed against offshore wind – and recently told the UK to ditch its “windmills”.
Yesterday, he wasted no time in enforcing an indefinite pause on new leases for offshore wind projects in federal waters.
But he went one step further, also pausing approvals, permits and loans for both onshore and offshore wind projects, subject to a review by his new interior secretary Doug Burgum.
The memorandum cited costs and impact on the environment and fishing industry.
Trump wants to free up space for oil and gas production, which comes with its own environmental impacts.
Scrapping electric vehicle targets
Trump has also ditched a 2021 Biden order that aimed for half of all new vehicles sold in the US by 2030 to be electric.
“The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity,” Trump said on Monday afternoon.
Biden’s administration sought to encourage electric vehicle use by offering a consumer subsidy for new EV purchases, and by imposing tougher tailpipe emissions standards on carmakers.
Trump’s bromance with Tesla billionaire Elon Musk did not persuade him to maintain the mandate, which has in fact given Tesla’s competitors a leg-up.