Trump’s Day One Executive Orders Will Worsen Climate Crisis: Alaska’s Richest Country Turning its Back on the Least Developed Countries

One executive order focuses specifically on Alaska, which has vast fossil fuel reserves and was the location for Willow—a controversial oil and gas project approved by the Biden administration in 2023. In order to allow for the permitting and leasing of energy and natural resource projects in Alaska, the US should repeal any regulations passed by the Biden administration, as well as Trump’s executive order which opens the door to other projects. It also specifically rescinds the cancellation of leases within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and withdraws an order from the Secretary of the Interior that temporarily paused oil and gas leasing in the Refuge.

The US International Climate Finance Plan increased international climate finance to over $11 billion every year by 2024, and was removed by the executive order. Bob Ward is a policy director at the London School of Economics and he says that it is the world’s richest country turning its back on the least developed countries.

The Paris Agreement’s terms meant that the US would not be leaving until November 2020, so Trump withdrew from the agreement in his first term. In one of his very first acts as president, Joe Biden had the US rejoin the Paris Agreement. It will take the US at least a year to leave the Agreement.

Source: Trump’s Day One Executive Orders Will Worsen Climate Crisis

Trump’s Energy Emergency: A Gift to Fossil Fuel Firms. It’s likely headed to court, writes Niskanen Center Soren Dayton

It is not yet clear how the day 1 executive orders will be implemented or how quickly they will be felt. Even though executive orders direct government agencies to implement the law, courts can challenge them if they look like they are violating the US Constitution or other laws.

The Niskanen Center director Soren Dayton said that there was no case law in the United States about when it was appropriate to declare an emergency. He expects either Trump’s energy emergency or his most recent southern border emergency declaration will face a legal challenge.

Trump invoked presidential authority under the National Emergencies Act, which he also used in 2019 to build a wall along the southern U.S. border. The President has more authority to sidestep bureaucratic processes and public notifications. There are 137 Statutory Powers that can be available to the president, according to a Brennan Center analysis.

In this case those powers include suspending some environmental regulations under landmark laws such as the Endangered Species Act and speeding up energy project approval processes.

But in defining what constitutes “energy” Trump left out two renewable forms – wind and solar power – which were a particular focus for the Biden administration’s ambitious climate policies. They make up more than 12% of the country’s electricity generation.

“It’s striking that the emergency he seems to be declaring, is one of a lack of fossil fuel production,” says Sam Sankar, an attorney and senior leader with Earthjustice. He says that the US has produced more oil and gas in the past than any other nation.

The climate effects of burning fossil fuels aren’t mentioned in Trump’s order. Instead it says Americans are suffering from high energy prices. It also looks ahead to increasing electricity demand from technology, like artificial intelligence and says inadequate energy supplies “poses an imminent and growing threat to the United States’ prosperity and national security.”

To fix that, Trump wants to cut regulations and speed up approval processes to deploy more oil drilling rigs, build more pipelines, and bring more power plants onto the grid.

Source: Trump’s energy emergency is a gift to fossil fuel firms. It’s likely headed to court

The National Emergencies Act – Does it Matter if the U.S. Supreme Court re-joins Congress or does it matter what you do?

It’s possible that challenges coming from this emergency declaration could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. That would provide answers to questions some have about the National Emergencies Act, such as what qualifies as an emergency.

One of the checks on President Trump’s powers likely will be litigation. Agencies will determine what options are available before that happens.

“You can’t challenge presidential statements or orders more than you can challenge presidential speeches,” Sankar says, “so what matters is when things on the ground affect people.”

If the Trump administration stopped paying funds that were required by the Inflation Reduction Act, it could be an example. It provided hundreds of billions of dollars of incentives to encourage technologies that reduce or eliminate the greenhouse gases responsible for climate change.

Dayton does not believe in using emergency declarations to deal with complicated problems like energy production, immigration or climate change.

“These are hard things and I think you need to have politics over them – not to invest the presidency with this magic wand and say we can do all these things without any debate,” Dayton says.