Climate Point: Trump rolls back Biden "green" policies

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. From Palm Springs, California, I'm Janet Wilson. Two and half hours west of here, the new Hughes Fire exploded to more than 10,000 acres in a day, and inferno-weary fire officials ordered 31,000 more people to evacuate. More on that below. First up, big changes for U.S. climate and energy.

We won't always have Paris. Newly re-installed President Donald Trump wasted no time rolling back major environmental policies of the Biden administration and moving to maximize oil and gas production, declaring an "energy emergency" hours after beginning his second term Monday. Although U.S. oil production is already at record levels, he streamlined drilling permits and re-opened oil and gas leading in parts of Alaska where it had been banned.

He also promptly withdrew the U.S. from the global Paris Climate agreement to slash greenhouse gas emissions, which former President Joe Biden had re-joined.

"The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity," Trump said at Capitol One Arena, where he signed multiple executive orders in front of roaring supporters, reports USA Today's Joey Garrison. Trump also axed the electric vehicle mandate, an Environmental Protection Agency rule that required auto manufacturers to cut greenhouse gas emissions by half in new vehicles by 2027. A nearly complete White House plan for regulating major "forever chemicals" was shelved, and liquid natural gas exports will resume, per Reuters.

The wind energy industry was put on hold, with Trump making good on his promise to create policy "where no windmills are being built." He signed an order that halts wind energy lease sales in federal waters and pauses approvals, permits and loans for offshore and onshore wind, reports USA Today's Elizabeth Weise.

Environmental groups say they intend to challenge Trump's executive orders in court.

“This is a long-haul fight," said Mike Young, executive director of California Environmental Voters. "Trump’s executive orders are a direct attack on the progress we’ve made to protect our communities from climate disasters. These decisions prioritize corporate profits at the expense of the health, safety, and future of our communities. "

Titling at windmills. But the ramifications are already being felt: Federal regulators on Wednesday once again put off a public meeting with Nantucket, Massachussetts leaders focused on the Vineyard Wind 1 project, this time indefinitely. And the New Jersey wind industry is facing a fresh lawsuit seeking to stop the state's first offshore project, while GOP Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who represents southern New Jersey, boasted he helped Trump draft the executive order that halts wind developments along the East Coast.

Proponents say the farms would play an integral role in meeting growing energy demand while lowering New Jersey's reliance on fossil fuels, a primary contributor to climate change.

One of Trump's executive orders also directed federal agencies “to route more water" across California to fire sites, instead of trying to protect a nearly extinct tiny fish species. Experts say the state's water flow has been complex for decades, and the president's mandate might be considered a bit fishy, writes USA Today's Terry Collins. 

But Trump, who will visit storm-ravaged North Carolina and fire besieged California on Friday, has threatened to cut aid for fire help to the Golden State if changes aren't made.

Researchers say climate change and aggressive development into wildlands are underlying reasons for deadly blazes like those that have torn through southern California this month.

Another cause? Aging, poorly maintained power lines and related equipment, with the smallest of parts causing monster blazes. Eyewitnesses to the starts of two of the biggest fires this month said they saw and heard transmission towers explode and flames curl underneath them, in one spot for the third time in 18 years, before they fled, Ventura County Star reporter Wes Woods II and I report.

Costly and hard choices need to be made to keep residents in high-risk areas safer, veteran energy disaster consultant Robert McCullough told me. One unpopular but key tool is to shut off power when high winds of certain velocities are forecast, he says.

"I'm talking about listening to the National Weather Service and pulling the plug before the lines go down," McCullough says, explaining that power lines and other infrastructure have maximum wind thresholds at which they can snap in two, blow out or otherwise be damaged.

Electric crews also need to be staged at vulnerable substations and transmission towers, not wait at headquarters until after a problem occurs. And billions of dollars need to be spent to bury power lines underground, even if it means tearing up portions of national forests and other wildlands, he says.

It's already being done in New York state and other places facing power outage risks from storms. The only part of the coastal town of Lahaina that did not burn in the deadly 2023 Maui, Hawaii fire had buried power lines, he notes.

With climate change taking hold, high winds and drought will continue to accelerate. "The bottom line is, this is not as bad as it's going to get," he says of the Los Angeles fire sieges.

People think of fire as urban structure blazes or wildfires in rural areas, but the lines have blurred, writes USA Today's Dinah Voyles Pulver, with more intense wildfires burning into neighborhoods where flames quickly spread from cars and homes.

“If there’s one point to make clear, it’s the worsening wildfires are not natural disasters, says Jennifer Marlon, a senior research scientist at the Yale School of Environment. “Earthquakes are natural disasters."

Read on for more, including that deep freeze in the deep South, and whether it's really safe to eat fresh snow. Some stories below may require a subscription. Sign up and get access to eNewspapers across the Paste BN Network. If someone forwarded you this email and you'd like to receive Climate Point in your inbox once a week, sign up here.