Blowing Smoke: Trump’s Energy Plan
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The administration of Donald Trump is making an unbridled push to block renewable energy projects—including last week halting the placement of 54 wind turbines in the ocean south of Long Island, New York—and is pushing fossil fuels, among them coal. The burning of fossil fuels is the leading cause of climate change. Trump has repeatedly called climate change a “hoax.”
Meanwhile, a Long Island resident, Lee Zeldin of Shirley, who Trump named administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is cancelling on a sweeping basis environmental regulations, discharging EPA employees and, last week, stopping the collection of greenhouse gas emission data.
Further, on April 8th Trump issued an executive order directing the U.S. attorney general to identify “illegal” state and local climate, energy and environmental justice laws that “impede” domestic energy production and use and “take all appropriate action to stop” their enforcement. The order is titled: “Protecting American Energy From State Overreach.” It opens: “My Administration is committed to unleashing American energy.”
Reacting, “New York State leaders say environmental protects and policies will remain on track” despite Trump’s order “attempting to undo state climate laws,” began a piece in the Long Island newspaper Newsday headlined: “NY Won’t Alter Renewable Energy Policy.” It said: “State Attorney General Letitia James, Gov. Kathy Hochul and other state leaders pushed back, saying efforts will continue including…and building out renewable energy sources, as the state aims to get all electricity from emission-free sources by 2040 and reduce economywide emissions by 85% from 1990 levels by 2050.”
Also, Hochul and the governor of New Mexico, Michelle Lujan Grisham, the co-chairs of the U.S. Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition........
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