Last week, in a reckless cluster of executive orders on climate and energy, President Trump put himself on a collision course with the Constitution, Congress, the rest of the international community, future generations, the nation's economic health, middle-class taxpayers and even life on the planet.

Trump regarded it as a good day's work. He staked out his claim not only to presidential power but also to command of America's oil cartel — the corporations, shareholders, banks and other investors that comprise the nation's fossil fuel sector.

In normal circumstances, Trump's influence would be limited simply because another president will replace him in four years. But climate change is accelerating rapidly toward the point where it will be catastrophic and irreversible on a planetary scale. The international community must remain on a fast track to decarbonize by 2050 to avoid that outcome. That's 25 years for an energy transition that is more ambitious than those that took 50 to 100 years in the past.

Nevertheless, Trump used an executive order to impound some of the $370 billion Congress appropriated in 2022 for clean energy investments under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Yet the Constitution puts Congress in charge of federal purse strings; the president's job is to administer Congress's decisions. Trump's impoundment order will join several other decisions that will challenge Congress to defend the separation of powers.

Regarding his decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, Trump can no longer claim that climate change is a hoax. Americans can see it, if not experience it directly, in disasters like the Lahaina and Los Angeles fires or the high-country flood in Asheville, N.C.

It's not a short-term trend. During the 1980s, the U.S. suffered an average of 3.3 mega-disasters annually — those causing more than a billion dollars in damages. From 2014 to 2023, the average was 17. Nine of........

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