I saw an incredible meme created by Dustin Mulbany, professor of environmental studies at San Jose State University. It has to do with President Trump’s efforts under the National Environmental Policy Act.
Background: The Trump administration wants to speed up permits for oil pipelines, natural gas plants and other fossil fuel infrastructure. The so-called permit reforms have been opposed by many climate activists, but not all. Streamlined environmental reviews can help fossil fuel companies’ steam rolls counter, but they can make it easier for energy developers to solar farms and wind turbines.
Some climate activists believe the benefits of allowing reforms outweigh the costs. The others are like that. They consider environmental reviews to be some of the best tools to control fossil fuel pollution. They also believe that solar farms and wind farms should not be given free passes from either.
OK, this is the Mulvaney meme:
This is the joke. Those who care about the climate crisis are shady to see Trump defeat democracy. But some of them nevertheless are willing to hold their noses and work with him to achieve the reforms permitted.
Personally, I think allowing reforms could be useful for the climate. Or at least it could have been last year when Joe Biden was president and there was bipartisan law in the Senate. Mulvaney disagreed that the Senate bill, which failed to pass, is “a recipe for undermining conservation and climate goals.”
Anyway, times have changed for climate advocates and everyone else. It is handled by Trump and Elon Musk. And you want to explain their actions –,, —-no one of a good conscience should cooperate with them. It’s like making a deal with the devil. In the end you’ll lose.
Here is the latest sampling from the Trump administration:
- The Environmental Protection Agency plans to say that EPA’s Chieflyseldin is “driven daggers at the heart of climate change religion.” Clean air and water rolls. (Melody Petersen and Hayley Smith, LA Times story)
- One of the EPA rollbacks is the only US coal plant without modern control for particulate emissions. I’ll be in the second half of 2023. (Tim McLaughlin, Reuters)
- The EPA will also close all environmental justice offices. In California, this could mean more pollution, such as the Inland Empire. (Kurtis Alexander, San Francisco Chronicle)
- The EPA is attempting to cancel the issue under the Inflation Reduction Act, a law approved by Congress. (Alex Gillen and Zach Colman, Politics)
I am old enough to remember the hopeful days three months ago. At least a few environmentalists saw Zeldin as a moderate. It’s pretty clear how that solved it.
Meanwhile, at Trump’s Department of Energy:
- US Energy Secretary Chris Wright calls climate change “the side effects that build the modern world.” The sun and wind power are more expensive than fossil fuels. (Brad Plummer, New York Times)
- Trump taps an oil executive to lead the Department of Energy’s renewable energy office, with one critic “putting the arsonist in charge of the Arson Bureau.” (Brian Dubs, E&E News)
The situation on public lands in the United States is equally severe.
The latest blow comes when the White House issued a fact sheet Friday suggesting that it signed an order to reinstate the creation of the Chuck Walla National Monument in the California Desert and the establishment of the Satilla Highland National Monument in Northern California. The next day, the White House removed the language from the fact sheet. Now, as my colleague Doug Smith reports.
If it sounds very strange to you, yes, it is very strange.
Who knows what will happen next. But if you care about public lands, I don’t mind trying to persuade Trump to take care of them. After us, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif) said he was looking forward to making an assertion to Trump’s appointees not to strip protection from Chuckwalla National Monument.
Some examples of that reality:
- Trump’s anti-diversity crusades have caused the cancellation of fire bootcamps facing labor shortages. (Jessica Kutz, 19th)
- The Ministry of Home Affairs has reinterpreted the Birds Convention Act, meaning energy companies as long as it is an accident. (Dino Grandi and Maxine Joserow, Washington Post)
- Among the successful US Senators last year, Sen. Tim Sheehee (R-Mont.) distanced himself from the “land transfer” movement to privatize public lands. Now he is. (Chris D’Angelo, public domain)
One of the worst examples of how unconscious Trump cares about objective reality, the president last week’s new decorations of “invading Los Angeles” and “opening the water.” Want to know what really fell? Read explores a newly released memo that reveals how he responded to Trump’s order to “maximise” water delivery in California.
Other Western Water News:
- California, Arizona and Nevada are urging Trump administration officials to consider it at the Glen Canyon Dam to ensure that water continues to flow through the Colorado River even if Lake Powell, behind the Arizona Dam, falls to dangerously low levels. (Ian James, LA Times)
- The Trump administration has suspended negotiations with Canada on the Columbia River Water Sharing Treaty, which is possible for hydropower generation in the Pacific Northwest. (Leyland Secco, Guardian)
To go back to memes: I understand my instincts. If you have a well-intentioned policy goal and think you might be able to squeeze it out of the Trump administration, you might be able to take what you can get.
However, sometimes optics make the self-defeating nature of tasks more clear than others.
Reading, for example, was impressed by the absurdity of Rep. Sidney Kamlager Dove (D-Los Angeles). She and her colleagues appealed to the Trump administration’s “fiscal responsibility spirit” and described the conservation plan as “terribly expensive.”
In fact, Kamlager-Dove has ethical issues with planning. This includes killing one type of owl to save another. Nevertheless, she essentially provides bait for the so-called government efficiency of masks.
Again, you don’t make a deal with the devil. Maybe you’ll get what you want in the short term. But in the long run you’ll lose. You condition yourself to keep falling for their tricks. You justify the erosion of democracy.
In that lovely note, there’s what else is going on in the West.
Energy Transition
Elon Musk has a great control of the federal government. But Tesla isn’t doing much because customers who hate playing cards in masked electric cars are so sour and sour. Some recent stories:
- Used Tesla EVs suggest that many people don’t want to buy them, or that many people are trying to sell them (or both). (Caroline Petrou Cohen, LA Times)
- There are a few angry Americans. (Andrew J. Kampa, LA Times)
- Pain can be reduced in both ways. In an unsigned letter to Trump’s US trade representative, Tesla quietly warned that the president’s tariffs were possible. (Caroline Petroukohen)
In other electric vehicle news, according to Janet Wilson of the Desert Sun, an activist who has rejected a lawsuit against lithium extraction in California’s Imperial Valley. Lithium is an important component of EV batteries.
Overall, the energy transition is slowing under Trump. Fossil fuel executives should be concerned about their clean energy goals. Bill Gates’ climate group, groundbreaking energy.
Even in California, it can be hard to get the good news. George Skeleton, my LA Times colleague, considering diverting $305 million from voter-approved climate debt to help Gov. Gavin Newsom balance his budget. Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s Elijah Kamisher says California’s civil service pension scheme counts investments in Chevron, Saudi Aramco and other fossil fuel companies as “climate solutions.”
Fire Fallout
Opening one story about the wildfires in Los Angeles County this week by my colleagues David Wharton and Lorena Iniges Elevy. Lorena has created an incredible visual that shows how to safely rebuild a fire-hit suburb. This is the most understandable explanator I have seen on this important topic.
Other Fire Safety and Recovery News:
- California regulators are considering making local government landfills more accessible to dangerous waste, for example, from wildfire zones. Environmental groups say most landfills are not equipped to handle it. (Tony Brisco, LA Times)
- More parts of California are now zoned. (Noah Hagerty and Sean Green, LA Times)
- A bill to raise wages for inmate firefighters. (Anabel Sosa, LA Times)
- For the hiking trail to burn and recover in the Palisade fire. (Jaclyn Cosgrove, LA Times)
Last but not least, the Times co-hosted votes for LA County voters to measure their response to the fire. As reported by Laura J. Nelson, I think we are quite wary that 9% of residents are 9% of residents. Also important: Most residents want it, especially in neighbours that have been devastated by recent fires, particularly in areas at risk of high risk, Liam Dillon writes.
Land and water
Some water stories for the road:
- The main construction site of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s planned Delta Water Tunnel surrounds the town of Hood, a small country town. (Alastair Bland, Calmatters)
- California continues to make stable but slow progress in restoring the Salton Sea, the state’s largest lake, than the surface. Latest updates: (Deborah Brennan, Karmatz)
- A storm is happening in the river in the air. (Seth Borenstein, Associated Press)
It’s sad to report two Deaths (number).
The first is David Myers, one of the most important conservationists in California’s history. He founded the Wildlands Conservancy, saving hundreds of thousands of spectacular acres from development and greatly expanding Joshua Tree National Park. , from Elaine Wu.
Second is Raul Grijalva, a Democrat who represented Arizona in the House of Representatives for over 20 years. He defended climate, conservation and tribal land management. .
One more
My LA Times Environmental Team colleague, Rosanna Shasia, will play on the closing night of Washington, DC, based on her documentary, “Out of Plane Sight,” about the hidden history of DDT abandoned off the California coast.
I was able to catch the film when it was shown at Netflix’s Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles last month. That’s great. You can, and find a list of.
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