Trump’s executive order to accelerate climate change didn’t get nearly the press it should have. It was of course upstaged by his more immediately destructive acts. By digging in to trash the economy, ignore court orders, and end habeas corpus as we know it, Trump successfully diverted attention away from his efforts to make sure big oil CEOs, among his largest donors, never have to face an angry American jury.
His “Protecting American Energy from State Overreach” executive order is a blind assault on federalism, meant to strip states of their inherent power to regulate pollution within their borders. Taking aim at state and local-led fossil fuel accountability efforts, Trump’s ferociously anti-science, anti-environment executive order seeks to destroy what has been called the last remaining hope for addressing climate change while there is still time. It anoints Pam Bondi as an all-too-willing agent of death: she is ordered to identify, investigate and challenge any state laws and policies meant to address climate change, including laws that reduce carbon emissions from cars and factories.
Aside from fast-tracking fossil fuel expansion, gutting EPA protections and terminating wind energy developments, his executive order directs Bondi to sue state and local governments to block their climate and clean energy policies. His edict proclaims that, “Americans must be permitted to heat their homes, fuel their cars, and have peace of mind—free from policies that make energy more expensive and inevitably degrade quality of life.”
He obviously has no idea that renewable energy is now cheaper and more reliablethan coal-fired electricity.
Climate change needs better PR
Other than Trump and a few IQ-compromised pols who think space lasers control the weather, no one still seriously disputes that carbon emissions are warming the planet, causing weather disasters of increased frequency, intensity and cost.
Many fossil fuel CEOs now admit the causal link between their products and climate destruction—some even acknowledging that climate change presents an “urgent threat”—but their change of heart came late and follows decades of an industry-wide gaslighting campaign promoting false, anti-science denials.
A crooked president and his political party rewarding fossil fuel donors is one part of the problem, but mainstream media, aided by America’s short attention span, is another. When climate disaster strikes, cameras and headlines linger on the aftermath, never the cause. Boats on roofs, flipped cars and people clinging to logs in fast-moving water attract more eyes than science and graphs.
And if climate science is boring to the average reader, imagine how they feel about climate law and policy.
Tenth amendment? What tenth amendment?
The unifying thread of Trump’s wide-ranging executive orders—aside from Trump not understanding the difference between enforcing laws and writing them— is that with each new executive order, Trump reveals a staggering level of ignorance about the subject he is trying to control. His executive order to destroy state climate efforts reveals that, despite four years’ prior experience in his role, he still has no clue how state authority relates to federal authority.
The 10th Amendment retains for the states any sovereign powers not expressly granted to the federal government. State power specifically includes state police powers to protect public health, which in turn requires states to monitor, regulate and curb pollution. SCOTUS has upheld states’ rights to enact and enforce their own pollution laws for decades. The Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Clean Water Act of 1972 establish a framework where the federal government sets national standards, but states pass their own regulations to either meet or exceed those standards.
Trump’s energy executive order seeks to rewrite these laws and replace them with his rabidly anti-Earth, pro fossil fuel edict.
A dangerous quid pro quo
Trump’s executive order came after big oil donors met with him in March, seeking his help in fighting their mounting climate liability risks from “polluters pay” lawsuits. Trump now accuses state and city climate litigants of trying to “extort” billions from energy producers, even as he insists that the enormous cost of climate disasters—which Forbes estimates will top $38 trillion annually—should fall exclusively on state and local governments.
Climate destruction is on course to take the lives, businesses and homes of hundreds of thousands of people this decade alone. Instead of protecting Americans in its path, Trump has sacrificed them to protect staggering fossil fuel profits for his donor class.
As forests, animals and neighborhoods burn, pollinators disappear, and streets slide into the ocean, the steepest price will be paid by today’s youth. The head of the youth-led Sunrise Movement describes Trump’s energy executive order as “an illegal, disgusting attempt to force everyday people to pay for the rising toll of climate disasters, while shielding the richest people in the world from (legal) accountability.” It also illustrates a president’s shocking ignorance of states’ rights.
Sabrina Haake is a 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th Amendment defense. Her columns are published in Alternet, Chicago Tribune, MSN, Out South Florida, Raw Story, Salon, Smart News and Windy City Times. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.