Clean Power Plan carbon cuts may survive, even if Trump EPA kills rule

Photovoltaic solar power field at Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, TennesseeThe Clean Power Plan’s future looks uncertain at best under President Donald Trump. The commander-in-chief appears to be urging American utility companies to pivot back towards burning coal to produce electricity. Ending the so-called “war on coal” is intended to create jobs in the mining sector, at the expense of the...

Trump budget slashes EPA emission testing, hits makers with higher fees

2017 Ford F-150 Raptor strapped to a dynoThe prospect of ongoing operations as usual continues to darken for the Environmental Protection Agency. According to a detailed internal budget document published in the The Washington Post, the Trump administration wants to eliminate virtually all federal funding for the agency’s vehicle emissions and fuel-economy testing budgets. If the...

Tesla loses bid to sell cars in Utah, dealer lobbyists win

Tesla Store Los Angeles [photo: Misha Bruk / MBH Architects]Tesla has once again been denied permission to sell its cars directly to buyers in the battleground state of Utah. Via a unanimous decision, the Utah Supreme Court handed Tesla Motors another setback this week. The state’s top court upheld a 2015 decision that denied the electric-car maker a license to sell new cars, citing a state law that...

Green groups gird for battle with White House: is it ‘war’?

The White House, Washington, D.C.  [Creative Commons license by dcjohn]Last Wednesday, a broad coalition of environmental groups sued the Trump Administration over an executive order that lifted a moratorium on issuing new leases for coal mining on federal lands. That order would have eliminated the requirement for an environmental impact study on the impacts of any form of coal extraction across a wide swath of...

Large corporations, manufacturers stick with climate pledges despite Trump

Walmart store sign (via Wikimedia)The new U.S. president, Donald Trump, is working to eradicate every Obama policy to limit the carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. Having variously called the science behind climate change a "Chinese plot" to hurt the U.S. and referred to it using an expletive for bovine excrement, this shouldn't come as a surprise. He pledged to do...

Trump’s climate-change order: now what happens?

The White House, Washington, D.C.  [Creative Commons license by dcjohn]These do not appear to be the best of times for President Donald J. Trump, but his agenda of eliminating regulations and promoting fossil fuels continues to roll out. This week, Trump appeared at the EPA to sign an executive order that directed the agency to reopen and reassess its Clean Power Plan for reducing carbon emissions from generating...

Trump Administration goal: undo every climate-change effort

Donald TrumpIt was clear well before November's election that candidate Donald Trump did not believe in the accepted science of climate change. He referred to it using an excremental epithet, and also claimed that it was a Chinese hoax created to hurt the U.S. Scientists around the world and the majority of Americans accept the science of climate change, but...

CARB reaffirms state emission, electric-car rules for 2025

California Air Resources Board chair Mary Nichols (via Twitter)The California Air Resources Board voted Friday to confirm its stricter emissions standards for 2025, setting up a potential clash with the Trump Administration. The CARB vote reaffirms a decision by the EPA in the waning days of the Obama Administration to lock in emissions standards for vehicles in model years 2022 through 2025. Under Trump, the...

Bipartisan governors’ group urges Trump to back solar, wind power

wind farmThe new presidential administration seems poised to take a radically different approach to energy policy than its predecessor. That approach is founded on denial of accepted climate science, and an expressed desire to promote the fossil-fuel industry, including the so-called revival of coal. But while the White House prepares to execute what looks...

5 electric-car questions to worry about this year

2017 Nissan Leaf  It seems fair to say that the new presidential administration may have increased the generalized level of worry among many Americans, not to mention the rest of the world. Among the things to worry about are the future of incentives, infrastructure, and legislation encouraging the adoption of zero-emission vehicles, primarily electric cars. These...

Trump’s EPA deletes ‘science’ from Science Office mission statement

Bill Nye in new 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV, Jan 2017 [photo: Oskar Liners, Community Chevrolet, Burbank]The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is emerging as one of the government entities most targeted by the new Trump Administration for change. In this case, if reports of the administration's draft budget proposal are accurate, change means wholesale elimination of staff, funding, and programs. Yesterday, however, an even more remarkable fact...

EPA to reopen 2022-2025 auto-emission rule decision: report

Chrome exhaust pipeIt looks like lobbying pays off, at least in the case of EPA emission rules. According to numerous recent reports, the EPA is expected to reopen the commenting period for vehicle-emission rules it finalized in January, more than a year ahead of schedule. Automaker CEOs and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers had asked President Donald Trump...

What White House faces if it tries to roll back fuel-economy standards

Chrome exhaust pipeDonald Trump won the U.S. Electoral College and swept into the White House on a varied platform that included significant promises to cut regulation and reduce government involvement in a wide variety of spheres. The day after his election, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers sent him a letter asking that corporate average fuel economy...

Public supports fuel-economy regulations, including Trump voters

Gas pumpRegardless of political persuasion, there are some issues almost everyone can agree on. One of them, for example, is likely gas prices. It's hard to imagine anyone who enjoys paying more every time they fill up their car. DON'T MISS: Emissions/MPG rules could cost 1 million jobs, Ford CEO tells Trump: what's behind that number? Which might explain...

U.S. to pull out of Paris climate-change agreement under Trump

Donald TrumpAs seemed likely from the day Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, the country will pull out of the global Paris Climate Agreement to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The move had been signaled even before the election by the new president's choice of noted climate-science denier Myron Ebell as head of his EPA transition team...

Trump EPA ordered to remove climate science; gag order, grant freeze too

The White House, Washington, D.C.  [Creative Commons license by dcjohn]Following the removal of all mentions of climate change from the White House website, the new administration has apparently trained its sites on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA and a handful of other government agencies are now reportedly under gag orders: employees are forbidden to discuss ongoing changes, post new material on...

Three-quarters of Americans accept climate science, regardless of Trump

Photovoltaic solar power field at Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, TennesseeThe new U.S. administration has made it clear that it does not accept the scientific consensus on climate change. From President Donald Trump down through his nominees for key roles—Scott Pruitt for EPA adminstrator, Rick Perry for Department of Energy head, and others—key elected and appointed officials have rejected the idea of human...

Action on climate change ‘harmful, unnecessary’: Trump White House

The White House, Washington, D.C.  [Creative Commons license by dcjohn]If there were any doubt that U.S. policy on climate change would change drastically under President Donald Trump, it should have been laid to rest shortly after noon yesterday. Following inauguration ceremonies for the 45th president of the United States, the Obama White House website was replaced with an entirely new site for the Trump White...