Climate Action U-Turn Part 2
If you haven’t had the opportunity to read my October 14 post of the same title, I encourage you to do so. It lists the 16 executive orders issued by President Pollute that reverse, or attempt to reverse, our nation’s role in the united global effort to understand and address the climate crisis.
Today’s post will provide a monthly list of when those climate U-Turns were implemented. Enough information will be provided to allow you to further research the damage inflicted upon the health, morale, and overall betterment of the American people.
In January:
AFTER 2024 was declared the hottest global year on record, and the U.S. recorded 27 weather/climate disasters (the average from 1980-2023 was 8.6/year), President Pollute (PP) gives notice of withdrawal from the Paris Agreement global climate accord! He exclaims, “I’m here to represent Pittsburgh - not Paris.”
USDA orders removal of all website references to climate change! In particular, important scientific tools and information to help understand how climate change affects farming and livestock under drier conditions were rolled back.
PP floats the idea of withholding Los Angeles fire aid unless CA voters agree to show ID before being allowed to vote. He adds, the fires “could have been put out had they (firefighters) not tried to save wildlife.” And in another politicization of natural disasters: in reference to the North Carolina survivors of Hurricane Helena, he states, “Those people were treated so badly by Biden.”
DEPARTMENT of Energy appointee climate denier Wright, “There is no climate crisis, and we are not in the middle of an energy transition” to renewable energy.
U.S. Global Change Research Program begins to undergo an assault that it would never recover from. First came the National Nature Assessment initiative that was shut down this month!
PRESIDENT officially opens up all federal lands to permit fossil fuel extraction while “temporarily suspending clean energy development in those areas.”
In February:
FOLLOWING the tragic LA fires, President Pollute orders the Army Corp. of Engineers to release reservoir water, intended for farmers, down a river and into the LA region. Of course, due to intervening mountain ranges, the water never got close and was wasted. He went on to say, “I only wish they would have listened to me six years ago - there would have been no fires.”
PRESIDENT Pollute says, “Wind turbines are the primary cause of whale and bird deaths.” He went on to halt current activity that involved federal approval for on and offshore wind energy, as well as to suspend $7 billion already funded and awarded for marginalized communities and rooftop solar. He further states, “nothing can destroy coal. Not the weather. Not a bomb.” And that he “wants to prove climate change can benefit humanity.”
OFFICE of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights abolished!! What once addressed pollution and waste hazards in minority and low-income communities became a memory!
EXAMPLE: Montana State University based organization that helped tribal and other low-income areas apply for federal, state, and private funding for clean energy and is torpedoed!
PP issues a declaration for the immediate expansion of American timber production, thereby lifting federal environmental protections on about 59% of the 193 million acres managed by the U.S. Forest Service! The goal: expand our nation’s logging industry by 25%.
NEXT, regarding the U.S. Global Change Research Program, its critical climate-related reports and scientific publications vanish from their website!
THE lease for the Chapel Hill, NC, research facility, which studied the critical effects of air pollution on people, particularly children, is cancelled! Vacate by June 30, 2025!
FEDERAL funds for EV charging station expansion are temporarily blocked, prompting a multi-state lawsuit. In August, a federal judge’s verdict forces PP to resume the $5 billion program!
10,000 USAID employees are terminated, thus ending America’s funding of drinking water and sanitation standards for impoverished nations.
In March:
PRESIDENT Pollute shutters $20 billion in climate action-related grants for the National Clean Investments Fund and Clean Communities Investment Accelerator! Scheduled for solar power, energy efficiency upgrades, and lower-income clean energy projects, the Biden climate agenda remains blocked until the courts can prove there is no evidence of waste, fraud, or conflict of interest.
CLIMATE change is omitted from the federal government’s annual threat assessment for the first time since implemented 10 years ago.
In April:
GOOD news! Citing nonexistent fraud and malfeasance evidence, a federal judge rules in favor of the Biden-era $20 billion clean energy program, temporarily blocking the March termination.
DEPARTMENT of Commerce $4 million intended for climate research at Princeton University is terminated because the school’s findings suggest Earth will have a significant fluctuation in water availability due to global warming! Also, the U. S. Global Change Research Program is cut off!
IN his effort to “end the government bias against coal,” President Pollute orders the Department of Justice to identify all state and local regulations that harm the coal industry!
PP calls out CA and other states for energy policies involving economic and national security. Going forward, laws addressing climate change, environmental justice, and limiting greenhouse gas emissions are to be prioritized only by the Attorney General. It’s suggested that CA uses “radical” requirements when it comes to regulating carbon use!
PROMISES are made to severely reduce the landmark NOAA staff.
FEMA requires the termination of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Program and rescinds the $1 billion funding arrangement! Part of the 2018 Disaster Recovery Act, it once provided funding to relieve human suffering from natural disasters.
LARGEST shipping nations vote to enact a first-ever global tax on greenhouse gas emissions, PP threatens “reciprocal measures” to offset any tax on American ships!
ANNOUNCEMENT is made that the U.S. will commercially mine, thus destroy, the seafloor surrounding our nation and international waters.
DOGE pulls a U-Turn on about 700 biodiversity, climate change, and human effects on the environment research programs funded by the National Science Foundation!
EPA internal emails reveal its goal to reverse all pending and active grants, including studies into children’s exposure to pesticides and forever chemicals!
BIRMINGHAM, AL, a settlement allowing minority Black residents financial assistance with their sanitation system is axed!
BACK to the U.S. Global Change Research Program: The consulting firm that helped coordinate the vital National Climate Assessment is terminated!
In May:
CONGRESS U-Turns an EPA mandate tied to the Clean Air Act that weakens seven hazardous air pollution regulations. Somewhere around 2,000 national industrial polluters can relax a little and release toxic chemicals linked to cancer!
DEPARTMENT of Justice files lawsuits against HA, MI, NY, and VT for the reason of having unconstitutional climate policies that threaten U.S. energy independence and national security!
EPA signals its intention to reorganize for the abolishment of much, if not all, of its climate-related work by the end of 2025! The Office of Atmospheric Protection, along with the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, to be closed down effective 12/31/2025!
FEDERAL government sues NY and VT regarding the states’ climate superfund to address climate change and greenhouse gas emissions!
CONGRESS dictates final approval for legislation to scrap certain EPA rules on the timber industry’s air pollutant standards!
NATIONAL budget update: the plan includes a $13 billion slash to NOAA!
ALONG the CA. central coastline, an existing federal grant previously allowed the Community Water Center to provide safe, clean water to low-income residents. This month, a Termination of Award from the EPA is received! An example of one of about 780 dictated throughout our nation.
EPA does not release its scheduled annual U.S. greenhouse report that pinpoints where the majority of emissions come from! The UNFCCC requires an April 15 deadline that the U.S. ignores for the first time.
NOAA discontinues its billion-dollar weather and climate disaster database that became effective in 1980!
GODDAR
D Institute for Space Studies, located on six floors of an upper Manhattan, NY building, receives a directive to vacate! For more than 50 years, it was a world leader in science and climate research!
FEDERAL government won’t allow for the annual flooding of the Grand Canyon river that previously restored beaches, preserves, and various ecosystems.
DEPARTMENT of Energy scuttles just under $4 billion in greenhouse gas reduction efforts and grants aimed at CO2 emissions capture and storage, cleaner cement, natural gas production, and more.
ENTIRE content production staff for climate.gov fired! Next month, the website transfers to the main NOAA website.
AIR Alliance Houston’s $3.1 million award for tracking pollution alerts from nearby chemical industry polluters cancelled. An example of the 230 others across the USA.
U.S. Department of Defense to end NOAA services for monitoring sea ice and snow cover loss, thus ending climate science access!
In June:
UNDER President Pollute’s ‘national energy emergency’ mantra, a plan is hatched to keep two Michigan coal plants open that were slated to close. 45% of this state’s greenhouse gas emissions flow from these two massive polluters. Currently, this state produces more energy than it needs! Contrast: Ireland became the 15th European nation to shutter its last coal power generation plant. Italy and Spain plan to follow suit.
2001 Roadless Rule under attack! Originally, created to prohibit road construction on about 60 thousand acres of our pristine national forests, a Senate congressional bill is introduced to put 3.29 million acres of protected swaths of land located in 11 western states for up sale!
PP’s inspired Supreme Court allows for the revival of an effort for fossil fuel companies to sue CA over its strict vehicle emissions standards that were once perfectly acceptable to the EPA!
THE Global Climate Talks resume without American participation for the first time in 30 years!
In July:
ENDANGERMENT FUNDING 2009 is the landmark legal opinion supporting the fact that greenhouse gas puts human health at risk. The EPA attempts U-Turn to said opinion! The direct opposite to global thinking.
FINAL hatchet blow to the U.S. Global Change Research Program occurrs when President Polutte shuts down its website, globalchange.gov. Therefore, all federal access to legally mandated climate assessments is eliminated!
EPA pounces again, closing its Office of Research and Development and puts an end to the study responsible for analyzing hazards such as climate change! Three months later, we are told a new office is created to do some of the work.
PRESIDENTIAL ACTION: Regulatory Relief for Certain Stationery Sources to Further Promote American Energy, ie, establish a 2-year exemption for coal plants to abide by the EPA rule involving national emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants.
PRESIDENTIAL ACTION: Regulatory Relief for Certain Stationary Sources to Promote American Chemical Manufacturing, ie, allow 25 chemical-emitting facilities a 2-year exemption from the EPA’s hazardous emissions standards!
PRESIDENTIAL ACTION: Regulatory Relief for Certain Stationary Sources to Promote American Iron Ore Processing Security, ie, another 2-year exemption, this time to protect this mineral’s production from having to comply with certain emissions-control requirements!
ONE Big Beautiful Bill Act eliminates commercial wind and solar tax credits for projects not under construction by 7/2026, or not producing electricity by 12/31/27. Qualification for such credits are made stricter. Effective 1/1/2026, the 30% residential tax credit ceases!
THE last U.S. national climate assessment disappears from federal websites!
NOAA plans to reduce its overall spending by 30% while eliminating 18% of its Office of Climate and Atmospheric Research staff.
FEDERAL grant known as the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund squashed when the Working Families Tax Cut was signed into law!
In August:
INFLATION Reduction Act allows for 54,000 tribal members across the U.S. without electricity to invest $2 billion in clean energy solutions. Investment terminated!
U.S. Energy Secretary Wright (Wrong) declares that the previous National Climate Assessment Report will now be updated, saying “past reports weren’t fair in their broad-based assessment of climate change.” It took years of research by hundreds of scientists and other experts to write accurate reports. No longer!
PRESIDENT Pollute’s administration demands that the International Energy Agency replace its leadership because the 32-country alliance is determined to warn the world of fossil fuel warming the planet, and must be replaced by clean energy sources!
USDA U-Turns the funding for solar and wind production on farmlands! A severe blow to a once valuable alternative for non-productive farmland.
CANCELLATION of the $7 billion American “Solar for All” initiative, including Alaska’s $125 million urban rooftop and rural community projects. Two months later: 23 states join a group of solar companies and labor unions to sue the administration.
RHODE Island Resolution Wind Project is on hold after reaching 80% completion. Nice try! In September, a federal judge orders construction to continue.
In October:
FEDERAL appeals court reverses a lower court’s ruling in favor of blocking PP’s March termination of the $20 billion for those valuable Biden-era climate action grants. Thus, the original recipients of the federal funding that consisted of eight nonprofit organizations are once and for all flipped upside down!
DEPARTMENT of Energy denies it banned climate vocabulary such as “climate change” and “emissions,” saying there is no such directive. What to believe? This is the opposite of what was directed by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy the previous month!
PRESIDENT Pollute announces government shutdown revenge by terminating $7.6 billion in grants supporting hundreds of clean energy projects in 16 selected states that voted Democrat in the November 2024 election. 233 projects involving battery plants, hydrogen technology projects, electric grid enhancements, and carbon capture efforts are slammed shut because of the right to vote.
EPA continues its attack on climate reality when it proposes to relax 2023 rules that would phase down hydrofluorocarbons (1000s of times more damaging than CO2) used in the cooling and refrigeration industry.
EPA decides it wants a federal court to U-Turn its own rule regulating contaminating PFAS chemicals in drinking water. Unregulated, this ingredient could contain a mild cancer risk!
USING the government shutdown to further purge agencies of valuable staff members, it’s made clear that an additional 4,100 will be terminated. Another 20-30 EPA employees are included, raising this department’s yearly layoff total to about 3,720.
AS the current administration works to discredit climate science, the Independent Petroleum Association of America begins a campaign to tarnish the World Weather Attribution group. These people provide vital lawsuit plaintiff data against big oil, gas, and coal regarding how much the fossil fuel industry contributes to worldwide severe weather disasters.
DISMISSAL of a landmark lawsuit is filed by 22 plaintiffs aged 7 to 22 to halt pro-fossil fuel executive orders! Young Americans will continue to suffer “irreparable harm to their health, safety, and future.”
CANCELLATION notice is delivered to what would have been our nation’s largest solar project! Located in Nevada, it would have powered up 2 million homes!
REGARDING Item No. 7 on the April list, after months of using our nation’s economic might as leverage, President Pollute wins the United Nations over!
In a special meeting in London, a member vote allows for a minimum one year postponement of the international shipping fee enacted on those freighters that exceed greenhouse gas emissions limitations. The night before the vote, PP posts, “United States will NOT stand for this Global Green New Scam Tax on shipping.”
EUROPEAN Union climate and human rights rules become President Polutte's latest obsession! He demands a complete repeal, or substantial cutback, of the EU Corporate Stability Due Diligence Directive which requires exporters to prove they protect human rights and are cutting their planet heating emissions, or face substantial fines. PP hints at the ceasing of liquid national gas shipments to the EU unless it complies with his demand!
It is easy to conclude from the above summary of daggers in the heart of climate progress that the worldwide obligation to transition from dirty energy to clean energy is the last thing on President Pollute’s mind. His underlying executive order, “National Climate Emergency,” is a clever ruse for “Drill Baby Drill,” and to date, he has accomplished almost all of what he set out to do beginning January 20 of this forgettable climate year in America.
As we near the end of 2025, it is impossible to know what emissions regulation or renewable energy advancement will be the Oval Office’s next target. The world’s clean energy market is projected to be a $2 trillion industry by 2035! If PP-driven trends continue for America, will the U.S. be one of the driving forces? Or will we not be present to have a voice on the global stage that shapes mindset and financing agreements to rid our planet of its catastrophic warming?
Please stay tuned for my December 9th post that will conclude this Climate Action U-Turn three-part series. In addition to summarizing the President’s attack on the “Hoax,” I will attempt to look to our future under his anti-environment assault.