Blocking Trump's Wrecking Ball: Push Back, Reach Out, or Bot

[Oscar]

Blocking Trump's Wrecking Ball: Push Back, Reach Out, or Both?

[ https://energymixweekender.substack.com ... dium=email ]

Mitchell Beer - January 4, 2025 - THE TYEE

QUOTE: "Don’t be surprised that Donald Trump and his cabinet nominees want to burn U.S. climate policy to the ground. It’s who they are, what they do. The question is: Who are we, and what do we do next?"

EXCERPT: "The Opposition Has Landed"

In the early days and weeks after Trump’s second win, there was little evidence that a shocked, despondent opposition would rise to the challenge. Thankfully, that moment seems to have passed.

On December 2, California Governor Gavin Newsom—who’s widely expected to mount his own campaign for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination—convened a special legislative session to help “Trump-proof” state laws. Options on the table included state electric vehicle rebates and a $25-million war chest to defend state policies regarding climate change, civil rights, immigration, and abortion access.

U.S. automakers will be asking the incoming administration to retain tailpipe emission regulations they once opposed, now that they’ve invested billions in the transition to electric vehicles.

In New York State, Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul closed out the year with a Climate Change Superfund Act that will charge major carbon polluters $75 billion over the next years for the impacts of their emissions. “With nearly every record rainfall, heat wave, and coastal storm, New Yorkers are increasingly burdened with billions of dollars in health, safety, and environmental consequences due to polluters that have historically harmed our environment,” Hochul said.

This Monday—two weeks before he leaves office, and four years to the day after Trump’s attempt to subvert the 2020 election with an armed insurrection—Biden is expected to block oil and gas leasing across 625 million acres of U.S. waters, equivalent to nearly a quarter of the country’s land mass. The New York Times says the measure “relies on a 70-year-old law that could make it difficult for the Trump administration to reverse it.”

And Bill Clinton-era labour secretary Robert Reich is looking to federal judges—the majority of them appointed by Democratic presidents—as “the only real firewall” against Trump’s excesses. “In light of Republican control over the White House and both chambers of Congress,” he writes, “litigation in the federal courts may be the only way to protect the rights of the tens of millions of Americans who didn’t elect Trump and even of many who did.” . . . ."

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