Turnaround Time for Trump – Watts Up With That?

From MasterResource

By Robert Bradley Jr. — January 22, 2025

“Many full-time climate activists like Mark Trexler need to get real jobs in the private sector producing goods and services that people want rather than engaging in wealth redistribution and net resource loss. A sea change is upon us….”

Mark Trexler of the (alarmist) Climate Risk Red Team (see appendix below) has compiled a list of Trump-related action items for a consumer-first, America-first approach to climate and energy policy. Trexler, worried about Trump, published this useful list that can now be compared to Trump’s executive orders now flowing from Washington, DC:

While I’d heard a lot about the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” blueprint for a second Trump Administration, I’ve never seen a simple listing of specific things being proposed. Note this is just a partial list, is limited to climate change, and is just one of a number of such lists being developed. That said, the implications would be pretty remarkable.

Accelerate the review process for cross-border energy projects
Appoint more judges likely to be unfriendly to climate action
Cut funding for international climate organizations
Delay stricter fuel economy standards
Eliminate climate change clauses in future trade agreements
Eliminate climate resilience requirements for housing projects
Eliminate grants for renewable energy projects
Eliminate international climate change adaptation programs
Elimination of DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Elimination of the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations
End to “pause” on new US LNG export authorizations
Expand grazing and forestry activities on federal lands
Expand oil and gas exploration on federal lands and waters
Expand research on advanced fossil fuel technologies
Finance international oil and gas projects
Increase biofuel production by easing regulations on ethanol production
Increase grant funding for fossil fuel technology startups
Increase training programs for coal and oil workers
Limit climate adaptation at military installations
Limit enforcement of environmental marketing regulations
Limit renewable energy mandates for military installations
Limit shareholder proposals related to climate change
Limit state powers to block energy infrastructure projects
Oppose broadcasting rules favoring climate change messaging
Prevent mandatory climate risk disclosures
Prevent mandatory environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures
Promotion of U.S. energy exports
Re-evaluate regulations on coal mining to promote greater extraction
Reduce climate financing for developing nations
Reduce climate health impact studies
Reduce export controls on coal and oil products
Reduce funding for climate change adaptation programs
Reduce intelligence focus on climate change as a national security threat
Remove climate PSAs from broadcasting regulations
Repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act
Rollback climate-oriented consumer protection regulations
Scale back climate research to focus on weather forecasting
Simplify the approval process for hydropower projects
Stop incorporating climate risk into monetary policy
Stop linking climate change to public health risks
Streamline environmental impact assessments for energy projects
Support bilateral energy agreements with fossil fuel-producing countries
Support hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and coal mining
Support state rollback of zero-emission vehicle mandates
Tweak IRS regulations to make access to IRA tax benefits more difficult
Weaken energy efficiency standards for appliances
Withdraw from international climate agreements

I count 47 items. Are there more? This is prior government’s fault for imposing—not a reform candidate’s fault for repeal/weakening. Free-market energies should be for the masses, not government wind, solar, and batteries re the Climate Industrial Complex.

Executive Orders to Date

The New York Times today listed these ten Day 1 Trump initiatives:

• Withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, the pact among almost all nations to fight climate change.
• Declare a national energy emergency, a first in U.S. history, which could unlock new powers to suspend certain environmental rules or expedite permitting of certain mining projects.
• Attempt to reverse Mr. Biden’s ban on offshore drilling for 625 million acres of federal waters.
• Begin the repeal of Biden-era regulations on tailpipe pollution from cars and light trucks, which have encouraged automakers to manufacture more electric vehicles.
• Roll back energy-efficiency regulations for dishwashers, shower heads and gas stoves.
• Open the Alaska wilderness to more oil and gas drilling.
• Restart reviews of new export terminals for liquefied natural gas, something the Biden administration had paused.
• Halt the leasing of federal waters for offshore wind farms.
• Eliminate environmental justice programs across the government, which are aimed at protecting poor communities from excess pollution.
• Review all federal regulations that impose an “undue burden” on the development or use of a variety of energy sources, particularly coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear power, hydropower and biofuels.

Final Comment

Is it time for the Mark Trexlers of the world to recalibrate? Decades of climate mitigation policy has produced waste and much trash talk (‘denier’) but not much change in global emissions. The saturation effect (diminishing forcing of CO2 as the atmosphere PPM builds up) makes climate activism a lost cause except for the shouting.

Many full-time climate activists need to get real jobs in the private sector producing goods and services that people want rather than engaging in wealth redistribution and net resource loss. A sea change is upon us….

Appendix: A Job in Alarmism

Mark Trexler describes his expertise as follows:

Having studied societal and business climate risks for the last 20+ years, I’ve arrived at several takeaways:

1) We’re substantially under-estimating societal AND business climate risks, near-, mid-, and long-term
2) It’s REALLY hard to get our heads around the potential implications of climate change going forward
3) Knowledge management is a key skillset for accessing actionable climate knowledge
4) Decision-support tools like Assumption Audits, Scenario Planning, and Pre-Mortems are critical

I developed the methodology for the first carbon offset (1989), carried out the first studies of nature-based solutions (1991), founded the first specialized U.S. climate risk consultancy (1991), managed the first corporate carbon footprints (1993), implemented many of the earliest carbon offsets (1992+), took the first company climate neutral (1996), built the first supply/demand carbon pricing model (1996), , and started developing the Climate Web as a collective climate change intelligence in 2010.

I’ve launched successful start-ups, managed global teams of climate consultants, served as a Lead Author and Chapter Editor for the IPCC, and been Director of Climate Risk for the Oslo-based global risk firm DNV.

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