• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
Soaring Fertilizer Prices Could Deliver ‘Silver Lining’ For Emissions, But Farmers Struggle to Limit Use June 26, 2022
BREAKING: UN Nature Summit, the ‘Paris Conference for Biodiversity’, Moves to Montreal in December June 19, 2022
‘LET’S SUE BIG OIL’: Legal Team Launches Class Action Campaign for B.C. Municipalities June 17, 2022
‘It Could Have Been Any of Us’, Colleague Says, After Brazil Confirms Murders of Bruno Pereira, Dom Phillips June 17, 2022
Infrastructure Gap a ‘Life and Death’ Matter as Northern Canada Warms June 17, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Demand & Distribution Auto & Alternative Vehicles

TrumpWrap: Budget Axe Hits NOAA, EPA Cuts Take Shape, Trump Recants on U.S. Steel Quota, and Issa Joins Climate Caucus

March 6, 2017
Reading time: 3 minutes
Primary Author: compiled by Mitchell Beer @mitchellbeer

Gage Skidmore/Flickr

Gage Skidmore/Flickr

 
Gage Skidmore/Flickr

Not content to reduce staff at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by one-fifth, the Trump administration turned its budget axe on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), proposing a 17% cut to an agency on the front lines of climate research and evidence-gathering.

A four-page memo obtained by the Washington Post pointed to “steep cuts to research funding and satellite programs,” the paper reported, and would “eliminate funding for a variety of smaller programs, including external research, coastal management, estuary reserves, and ‘coastal resilience,’ which seeks to bolster the ability of coastal areas to withstand major storms and rising seas.”

The White House was expected to begin rolling back Obama-era regulations that limit controls on carbon pollution from vehicles and encourage the transition to electric vehicles, and to “begin the more lengthy and legally complex process of dismantling the Clean Power Plan,” the New York Times reported. “The regulatory rollback on vehicle pollution will relax restrictions on tailpipe emissions of carbon dioxide and will not require action by Congress. It will also have a major effect on the United States auto industry.”

Meanwhile, in one of his first acts as EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt put an end to the agency’s efforts to gather data on methane emissions from oil and gas producers that were among Pruitt’s top political allies in his past career as Oklahoma’s climate-denying attorney general. Under an Obama administration order finalized last November, “more than 15,000 owners and operators of oil and gas production or processing facilities had been required to submit information on their equipment and operations,” InsideClimate News reported. Pruitt “announced he was withdrawing that request, effective immediately.

The U.S. Environmental Defense Fund responded with a blistering critique of the U.S. fossil industry’s justification for rolling back the methane disclosure rule. The EDF also argued that EPA clean truck standards have saved U.S. freight carriers millions of dollars while protecting human health and the planet.

Yet Pruitt, in his own way, signaled that he would try to defend his agency against the depth of the White House’s proposed budget cuts. “I am concerned about the grants that have been targeted, particularly around water infrastructure, and those very important state revolving funds,” he said. “The importance is setting priorities as an agency and then allowing the budget to be formed around that. What’s difficult, having only been there a week, is to have these kinds of recommendations made and then look at our priorities and say, ‘You know what, we’ve got to make sure that we look at these programs.'”

The White House went through contortions to justify exempting the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines from the made-in-America steel requirements that Trump touted on the campaign trail. The announcement earned a shout-out from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but led to questions about Trump’s promise to deploy his vaunted deal-making abilities to protect U.S. jobs.

On Capitol Hill, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) joined a bipartisan House of Representatives climate change caucus, despite his long-standing reputation as a climate denier and clean energy opponent. “I’m a great believer in redemption,” climatologist Michael Mann told ThinkProgress. “If Darrell Issa, once a proponent of climate change denier conspiracies, who abused his congressional authority to issue witch hunts against climate scientists, now embraces action on climate, more power to him.”

ThinkProgress noted that Issa had just been through his first competitive re-election campaign in more than 15 years, a “near-death experience” in which he held his seat by only 1,600 votes out of 310,000 cast.



in Auto & Alternative Vehicles, Climate & Society, Climate Denial & Greenwashing, Climate Impacts & Adaptation, Demand & Distribution, Energy Politics, Fossil Fuels, Jurisdictions, Legal & Regulatory, Methane, Pipelines / Rail Transport, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

David/flickr
United States

U.S. Supreme Court Expected to Gut Emission Controls as Climate Scientists Petition for Plan B

June 26, 2022
1
pxhere
Environmental Justice

Environmental Racism Bill Passes Second Reading in House of Commons

June 26, 2022
1
Graco/Facebook
Food Security

Soaring Fertilizer Prices Could Deliver ‘Silver Lining’ For Emissions, But Farmers Struggle to Limit Use

June 26, 2022
2

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

The federal government's Cliff Street Power Plant is at the centre of Ottawa's plans to reduce natural gas demand. Photo: PWGSC

EXCLUSIVE: Ontario Regulator Refuses New Pipeline, Tells Enbridge to Plan for Lower Gas Demand

May 30, 2022
5.2k
Jason Woodhead/Flickr

Trans Mountain Pipeline On Track to Lose $600 Million, Parliamentary Budget Officer Finds

June 24, 2022
341
Ben_Kerckx/Pixabay

Plastics Cited as ‘Fossil Industry’s Plan B’ as Guilbeault Announces Partial Ban

June 24, 2022
219
Bruce Reeve/Flickr

Opinion: Ontario’s New ‘Carbon Tax’ Looks Like the One Doug Ford Fought

June 7, 2022
1.6k
eloialferez66/pixnio

Toronto’s New Backyard Homes Will Help Fight Sprawl

June 24, 2022
70
Greg Goebel/Wikimedia Commons

Canadian Pension Board Invests $141M in Chinese Coal Projects, Undercutting Federal Phaseout Policy

July 29, 2020
2.3k

Recent Posts

David/flickr

U.S. Supreme Court Expected to Gut Emission Controls as Climate Scientists Petition for Plan B

June 26, 2022
1
pxhere

Environmental Racism Bill Passes Second Reading in House of Commons

June 26, 2022
1
Graco/Facebook

Soaring Fertilizer Prices Could Deliver ‘Silver Lining’ For Emissions, But Farmers Struggle to Limit Use

June 26, 2022
2
stockvault

Animal Agriculture Could Reduce Future Pandemic Risk, UK Researchers Say

June 26, 2022
1
Gustavo Petro Urrego/flickr

Colombia’s President-Elect Has ‘Ambitious’ Plans to Halt Amazon Deforestation

June 26, 2022
1
Adam E. Moreira/wikimedia commons

Suspend Transit Fares, Not Gas Tax, Climate Advocates Urge Biden

June 26, 2022
1
Next Post
Wheat’s traditional rural image now comes at a heavy environmental price.

Science seeks to slice bread's climate impact

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}