Trump Administration is Far
Worse for the Planet than Most Realize
We need to take stock of where we are if we are to
have any chance of getting to where we need to go. After years of slow but steady
climate action, the U.S. now
has a climate and environment destroying president and legislature. Although Hilary Clinton won the majority of votes, under the collegiate system –which was designed to protect slave owning states–Donald Trump won the election and will be president.
Under Trump, Republicans will reverse everything that President Obama has achieved on energy and the environment.
Consider that President-elect Trump called global
warming “bullshit” and a Chinese-invented hoax.
Although this may seem like a surreal reality show it is actually a living nightmare, a cataclysm of America’s own making.
Trump has promised to double-down on fossil fuels, kill climate action and withdraw from the Paris Agreement. He will gut the EPA and eliminate $100 billion in climate-related federal funding over the next eight years.
Although this may seem like a surreal reality show it is actually a living nightmare, a cataclysm of America’s own making.
Trump has promised to double-down on fossil fuels, kill climate action and withdraw from the Paris Agreement. He will gut the EPA and eliminate $100 billion in climate-related federal funding over the next eight years.
A Trump administration will open the climate
floodgates and this is a grave threat to all life on Earth. Americans have voted for a
President and a party that will augur mass starvation, coastal flooding, megadroughts,
unprecedented super-storms, ocean acidification,
widespread conflict, climate refugees and worse. The military and intelligence community recognize that climate change
is a national
security threat of epic
proportions.
Many environmental groups are trying to offer a
positive spin on the election of Trump. The Pollyanna perspective of many
environmentalists may be due to the fact that they are suffering from their own
brand of denial or it may be a pragmatic attempt to invite more financial support.
Either way, this view is hopelessly disconnected from reality. They speak to
the need for climate action, but they fail to mention that it has become almost
impossible to achieve the required level of emissions reductions with Trump and
the Republicans in control of the U.S. federal government. A Think Progress
article by Joe
Romm made the point
succinctly with the following words:
“[T]he damage and delay that even a one-term President Trump could do will make the already difficult task of keeping total warming well below 2°C essentially impossible.”
The Trump administration’s disdain
for science will end
science-based policy decisions and contribute to a climate Kakistocracy.
While defiance in the face of such a dire predicament is both noble and
necessary, it is crucial that we understand what this administration will do so
that we can develop cogent counter-strategies.
Fossil fuels
Trump has vowed to dig for coal, mine for oil and
frack for gas. President Trump, along with a Republican legislature, has
effectively given the keys of government to the fossil fuel industry. This
means the end of government efforts to protect the environment and reign in
climate change. As promised by Trump, he will support private sector energy
infrastructure projects. This means that pipelines and coal export terminals
will be built. Fossil fuel projects like the Dakota
Access (DAPL) pipeline will
be approved and the Keystone XL will be resurrected from the grave. Ongoing
Republican support for fossil fuel subsidies and public money for related research and
development will continue in earnest.
Emissions
Trump’s fossil fuel focused energy policy will
increase U.S. emissions. Lux Research recently said, “estimated emissions would
be 16 percent higher after two terms of Trump’s policies than they would be
after two terms of Clinton’s, amounting to 3.4 billion tons greater emissions
over the next eight years.” The only way that Trump will be able to reduce
emissions is by causing a protracted global depression. Economists concede that
this is very likely if he implements his economic plan. Nobel Prize-winning
economist Paul
Krugman bluntly stated that
Trump’s presidency heralds, “a global recession, with no end in sight.”
Key positions
Trump appointed a climate denier to a senior
environmental position in his transition team and on January 20, 2017, climate
deniers and fossil fuel advocates will take over all branches of government.
Myron Ebell will head the EPA, he has said global
warming is “nothing
to worry about“. He has also
openly denied the veracity of peer reviewed climate science and he is expected
to end the agency’s climate and environmental advocacy.
Oil billionaire Harold
Hamm is Trump’s top pick to
lead the Department of Energy and he will oversee the ramping-up of fossil fuel
production. His other energy advisers include coal magnate Robert Murray and
pro-fossil fuel Rep. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota.
Sarah Palin may be tapped to be Secretary of the
Interior. She infamously called fossil fuels, “things that God has dumped on
this part of the Earth for mankind’s use.” Whoever gets that position is
expected to open oceans and federal lands to various forms of extraction
including fossil fuels. There are about 279 million acres of public land and
water thought to hold oil and gas. The Trump transition team turned to Koch
lobbyist Mike
McKennafor advice on the Energy
Department.
Although the reality star calls himself an outsider, he is staffing
his administration with lobbyists and industry insiders.
Regulations
Hamm has reportedly told Trump to “just scrap” Obama’s
regulations. Polls suggest that Americans care about dirty air and
water and, to a lesser extent, climate
change. However, under a Trump
administration, Americans may see the protections in place disappear.
The EPA, which was created by Richard
Nixon, will be a shadow of its
former self as its budget will be radically reduced and its powers scaled back.
The Clean Power Plan will be replaced and in the interim, states are likely to
be given waivers that will exempt them from having to comply. The Obama
administration’s fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks are also
likely to be revoked. Other regulations in jeopardy include rules pertaining to
oil and gas drilling, methane, smog, mercury, coal pollution, pesticides,
wildlife protections and oil spills.
Legal challenges
The climate-killing changes Trump has promised may
take some time to implement. In the interim, we can expect legal challenges.
However, the power of the highest court in the land will be stymied when Trump
stacks the Supreme Court with anti-regulation, pro-fossil fuel conservative
judges.
Cleantech
Billions of dollars in federal government support for
clean energy will be withdrawn and the funding for the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing
Loan Program will be
cut. Federal tax credits for solar and wind are unlikely to be renewed (the
investment tax credit (ITC) for solar and the production tax credit (PTC) for
wind.
Trump has also indicated that he will end America’s
cleantech leadership in terms of both research and development. The absence of
public money for research will undermine America’s ability to benefit from the
golden opportunity associated with cleantech for many years to come.
Paris agreement
Global cooperation on climate action will face major
opposition as the wealthiest nation in the world ignores the Paris Climate
Agreement. Make no mistake about it, just as the US under President Obama was
critical in securing international climate cooperation, opposition to climate
action and doubling down on fossil fuels will undermine global climate efforts.
We must remember that even if the US respected its commitments, we needed to
see bigger emissions cuts to keep global temperature averages from rising above
prescribed limits. Ratcheting up ambitions in 2020 seems very unlikely.
Although states assembled at COP22 are trying to put a brave face on climate
action, the Trump administration will have serious global repercussions.
Climate finance
Under Trump, the US will not contribute to global
climate finance, meaning that poorer nations will be less likely to be able to
afford the robust action that is needed. Trump will not provide aid for
development related to climate change, this includes the UN’s green finance,
the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. He will also end
adaptation and resilience grants and subsidies to support local government.
Federal Agencies
Efforts to make federal agencies use more renewable
energy and be more energy efficient will also come to an end. So will the environmental
oversight that now must be part of all new projects in federal agencies.
Democratic Senators
While the Republicans were obstructionist for their
own partisan gains, Democrats in the Senate will be obstructionist on behalf of
current and future generation. The only tool that Democrats have to oppose
Republican action is the filibuster. A total of 60 Senators are required to end
a filibuster. Only 41 of the 47 Democrats in the Senate are required to make a
filibuster impervious. However, some think that Republicans will simply get rid
of the filibuster as they need only 50 votes to do so. Now that Republican
legislators are in control they could use their majority to support
environmental measures that affect the federal budget into budget reconciliation
bills. Such bills only need 51 votes to pass.
We the people
The repercussions of a Trump administration will be
felt for decades after Americans come to their senses. Their misdirected rage
and petulance has caused them to cut their nose to spite their face. The savage
irony is the the world will suffer in the wake of their angry effort to send a
message by giving more power to obstructionist Republicans, the ones
responsible for Washington being broken in the first place.
Those who voted Republican will come to rue the day
that they handed the most powerful office in the world to the least qualified
candidate ever to win the presidency. We must not let them forget what they
have done, we must ceaselessly remind them of the hell that they have unleashed
on the world. This is not retribution, this is about accountability.
Although businesses
and investors will
counter the climate-killing efforts of the Trump administration, market
forces alone will not be
enough to keep us from surpassing tipping points from which we will not be able
to recover.
Conclusion
China’s Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin reminded
the new administration that
climate negotiations began in the 1980s under popular Republican president
Ronald Reagan. History will record that Republican president Donald Trump
opened the door to catastrophic climate change when he slammed shut the window
of opportunity for climate action in 2017.
This is a bitter pill to swallow but we must be fully
aware of what we are up against if we hope to do what we can to counter this looming
dystopia.
Richard
Matthews is a consultant, eco-entrepreneur, green investor and author of
numerous articles on sustainable positioning, eco-economics and
enviro-politics. He is the owner of The Green Market Oracle, a leading sustainable business site and one of the Web’s most
comprehensive resources on the business of the environment. Find The Green
Market on Facebook and follow The Green
Market’s twitter feed.
