Trump kills Climate Change Mitigation
Denning’24[Liam Denning and Mark Gongloff; February 22; Bloomberg Opinion Columnist, Bloomberg Opinion Editor; Bloomberg, “A Second Trump Presidency Would Be a Nightmare for the Climate.” https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-02-22/climate-change-trump-s-plans-for-a-second-term-could-be-disastrous]
A second Donald Trump presidency would be a nightmare for Earth’s climate (among other things). But in the same way your immune system builds up defenses after exposure to a virus, efforts to fight global warming are stronger now than the first time Trump attacked them. But he could still do significant damage from the White House.
In his first term, Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, rolled back environmental regulations, unleashed oil and gas drilling and more. His advisers seem to think he didn’t go far enough. Report after report after report quotes them planning for “all-out war on climate science and policies” that will make first-term Trump look like Al Gore by comparison.
President Joe Biden has taken flak from environmentalists for approving the Willow project in Alaska and overseeing a surge in exports of liquefied natural gas. But he has also driven significant investments in the green-energy transition, starting with the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and the Inflation Reduction Act’s nominal $370 billion in climate spending. He has limited oil exploration in the Alaskan wilderness and effectively frozen new LNG export terminals. All told, he has taken climate more seriously than any predecessor since Jimmy “Solar Panels on the White House” Carter.
Trump could quickly, and with gusto, wreck much of that progress. Here’s a survey of some of the strengths and weaknesses the climate movement would bring to a second Trump term.