'Battle plan': How the far right would dismantle climate programs
E&E News reporter Scott Waldman details Project 2025, a Republican plan that Donald Trump, or any Republican, could use to purge climate action from the federal government.
In a nutshell:
Conservative groups have formulated Project 2025, designed to undermine the federal government's efforts on climate and clean energy. The plan, 920 pages long and drafted by hundreds of conservative experts, lobbyists and former Trump administration officials, seeks to prevent the expansion of renewable energy, cut funding for environmental justice and close renewable energy offices. If enacted, Project 2025 could significantly hinder the government's climate work, stall the clean energy transition and shift focus towards supporting the fossil fuel industry rather than regulating it, writes Waldman. The proposal has been deemed a battle plan aimed at dismantling the administrative state and could come into effect on the first day of a Republican presidency.
Key quote:
“Project 2025 is not a white paper. We are not tinkering at the edges. We are writing a battle plan, and we are marshaling our forces,” said Paul Dans, director of Project 2025 at the Heritage Foundation. “Never before has the whole conservative movement banded together to systematically prepare to take power day one and deconstruct the administrative state.”
The big picture:
Continued reliance on fossil fuels and inadequate measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions may exacerbate climate change, leading to more frequent and intense extreme weather events, rising sea levels and disruptions to ecosystems. This, in turn, could result in widespread economic and social impacts, including displacement of communities, threats to food security and increased health risks due to heatwaves and air pollution.
Read the article at E&E News.
EHN columnist Peter Dykstra wrote in 2022 about our unfortunate history of forsaking climate and energy concerns for the issue of the day, or the issue(s) of the coming election—even as our time to act on climate change grows desperately short.
