Donald Trump’s Attacks on the Climate Continue

Earlier this year, I wrote a blog post entitled Trump spends his first 100 days attacking the climate detailing many of the immediate actions taken to stymie our nation’s efforts to combat climate change. Well, we’re now about 9 months into his second term, and the attacks have only ramped up. 

Trump's climate policy

First, there is some good-old-fashioned climate denial. Back in 2009, the Obama Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officially found that greenhouse gas emissions “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.” That finding was important because it's the basis on which all climate-focused regulation was promulgated. Without it, the EPA can’t legally act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.  On July 29, 2025 the the newly appointed head of the agency proposed rescinding that finding, arguing that it was unscientific and too expensive (read “costs their friends in the fossil fuel industry too much money”). In many ways, this is a move reminiscent of climate debates 20 years ago, when Republican administrations denied the very existence of climate change. 

The major difference now is that agencies that have been operating for almost two decades under the assumption that climate change is real are now being told to stop. Programs and rules that have been successfully reducing climate pollution will cease to exist as they no longer have any legal basis. The proposal rests on a factually inaccurate report, commissioned and produced by the Trump Administration, that, among other things, claims that increased carbon dioxide levels will benefit the planet by providing more carbon for plant growth, leading to global greening. This is an old climate denialist talking point that has been thoroughly debunked by climate scientists. Trump’s proposal will almost certainly result in litigation, but using a crystal ball and wondering what our conservative judiciary will do with the cases does not leave room for hope. 

On June 11, 2025, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin proposed to repeal all “greenhouse gas” emissions standards for the power sector under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act. That means the EPA will no longer regulate carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, among other things. At the same time, the EPA is allowing more methane emissions from the same coal-fired power plants, contributing both to climate change and local air quality problems. Trump is not only reducing the regulatory burden on coal plants, he’s also forcing them to remain open even when the companies operating them don’t wish to do so. A report from the Environmental Defense Fund found that this move will cost $3-6 billion per year, as we subsidize these incredibly dirty and ancient power plants. At the same time, the Trump Administration is winding down early federal subsidies for solar, wind, and batteries, making these projects more expensive to build.

Less direct but perhaps even more pernicious are the attacks on gathering data about climate change. Back in March, Trump fired the team working on the National Climate Assessment, a congressionally mandated report that outlines the growing dangers of rising temperatures for the public. Then, in August,  he directed NASA to purposefully destroy two satellites that gather data about carbon dioxide levels and plant growth around the globe. The satellites, which have already been built and launched into space, provide some of the highest-quality data on climate available. This goes hand in hand with directions from this administration to stop considering climate change in National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) environmental review documents. Now, when the Federal government considers the environmental impacts of projects, it will no longer consider climate change.

This just scratches the surface in terms of the attacks on the climate. NRDC has compiled a list of more than 300 actions taken by the Administration that threaten the environment, climate, and human health, and Dan Farber at Legal Planet has collected a list of Trump Administration Executive Orders that impact energy and the climate.  Suffice to say, that our federal government has been relentlessly busy finding new and dangerous ways to undermine climate progress and accelerate environmental harm, and EPIC is committed to tracking these policies and engaging at the local level to help combat these attacks on our environment.