Activists who downplay climate change have offered a wish list for Trump’s transition team, with one describing his win as a “tremendous opportunity” to reverse US policy.
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(Bloomberg) — Activists who question the seriousness of climate change reveled in Donald Trump’s first administration and salivated over the possibility of him returning to the White House. Now that he’s won, they’ve delivered a wish list for his transition team.
High on their agenda: ending federal science advisory boards, revising the EPA’s air quality regulations and rescinding President Joe Biden’s “anti-coal regulatory actions,” as well as promoting coal as a “preferred means of electricity.” ”
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The groups behind the memo include the Illinois-based Heartland Institute, an Illinois-based think tank that argues global warming is beneficial; the Energy and Environmental Charter Institute, a Virginia-based organization; and the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, which runs a website promoting climate change skepticism. An energy and environment leader advised Trump’s EPA transition team after his first election win, and the Heartland chief touted his ties to the incoming administration.
Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Scientists almost unanimously agree that the temperature of the atmosphere has risen by more than 1 degree Celsius since the Industrial Revolution, due to human activity, especially the burning of fossil fuels. They agree that emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases must be reduced sharply to preserve a habitable planet. The United States is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.
It is possible that the skeptics’ to-do list, or parts of it, will find welcome in the next administration. The president-elect has derided climate change as a “hoax” and “fraud” and employed a number of climate science critics in prominent roles during his first term.
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“It’s a tremendous opportunity,” said James Taylor, president of the Heartland Institute. “Donald Trump has proven during his first four years in office that he will not be fooled by the myth of the climate crisis.”
On some points, the groups’ agenda actually aligns with Trump’s stated goals. Trump is a harsh critic of wind energy, and has said that he will target this industry. Activists want him to “delist” areas earmarked for future offshore wind projects. They also want the next administration to prevent the grid from relying on “variable” wind and solar power as a matter of national security. If Trump withdraws the United States from the 2015 Paris climate agreement, as he has pledged to do, they want him to take that further by formally sending it to the Senate for a vote — a move that could prevent any future Democratic president from rejoining the agreement. .
The groups are urging Trump to crack down on science at the EPA in particular. They want to repeal the agency’s 2009 “danger finding,” which found that the buildup of global warming gases in the atmosphere endangers public health, and which underpins many U.S. environmental rules. They also hope to reinstate the “secret flag” rule that was prevalent in Trump’s first term. This limited the use of research to formulate regulations unless authors disclosed the data they used. Critics said the rule excluded important research such as public health studies based on anonymized patient data.
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Environmentalists say adopting the agenda would reflect the progress the United States has made in reducing emissions, after the outgoing Biden administration made tackling climate change a priority. The world has almost exceeded the 1.5°C global warming threshold that countries agreed to in the Paris Agreement. The United Nations recently said that the Earth is currently on track to warm by 3.1 degrees Celsius.
Callie Kreider, who advised Al Gore on environmental issues and is now president of the public affairs firm Ridgley Walsh, said the groups’ memo “sounds like a wish list for the oil and gas industry.” But she added that it appears to downplay the clean energy transition that has already occurred, including in red-leaning parts of the country.
She said: “It seems to me that there is an overshoot – almost a misreading – from where we were in 2016 to where we are today.”
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