| A major focus of this Trump administration has been trying to dismantle government efforts to lower carbon emissions. The administration and Republicans in Congress have already rolled back incentives for everything from electric cars to energy-efficient appliances, ended monitoring of air quality at national parks and are working to weaken rules for highly toxic air pollution and polluting tires. Climate scientists I spoke to say this will set the United States back years in the battle against climate change. But they also say that President Donald Trump, who has called climate change a “hoax,” is fighting a turn toward clean energy that can’t be stopped, just delayed. “If you’re worried about all of the risks associated with climate change, like more intense hurricanes and more extreme weather events and floods and these horrible, intense fires we had in L.A., these events are made worse by a warming climate,” said Jody Freeman, an energy lawyer in the Obama administration who founded Harvard’s environment and energy law program. “If we are not working in the direction of addressing it, then we’re in trouble. And they are getting in the way of progress.” Here’s what’s going on. The administration is weakening environmental protection rules The Environmental Protection Agency, which monitors and regulates air quality, chemicals in drinking water and many other health hazards, is considering loosening restrictions on gas and coal power plant emissions. It also canceled hundreds of grants aimed at helping communities from Alaska to New Orleans deal with the worsening effects of climate change and effectively ended an environmental justice program started under President George W. Bush. Republicans argue that these regulations unnecessarily inhibit business progress. But the climate scientists I spoke to say this will increase pollution, especially in vulnerable communities, and accelerate a warming planet. “This is the most serious assault on all the progress we’ve made on climate change of any presidential administration,” Freeman said. Lawmakers are trying to stop Biden’s climate investments Congressional Republicans are debating repealing former president Joe Biden’s energy efficiency tax credits to help pay for Trump’s unrelated tax cuts. Eliminating these credits for homeowners and businesses to make energy-efficient upgrades would really set the U.S. back, according to climate scientists. But this might also be the hardest thing for Trump to get done. The incentives to help homeowners make energy-efficient upgrades have become more popular than expected —by some estimates, three-quarters of investments go to Republican communities to manufacture clean-energy products. The Georgia district represented by Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — who promoted a debunked theory that elites can “control the weather” — is one of those communities, said Leah Stokes, a political scientist at the University of California at Santa Barbara and co-host of the climate podcast “A Matter of Degrees." Stokes noted Greene’s district houses a large solar manufacturing facility. “You see that in so many Republican districts,” Stokes said, "and my hope is they don’t have the votes to cut these credits.” They are attacking climate science from within the government The administration appears to be trying to get the government out of the business of forecasting climate change and how that affects extreme weather. It recently dismissed the scientists working on a report mandated by Congress about the state of climate change in the U.S. that is used to plan for climate disasters. And it wants to end the government’s research into how climate change affects weather and oceans as hurricane season approaches. Stokes said this is part of a broader attempt to deny that climate change is real and is affecting everyday lives. But Americans who have experienced extreme floods, fires and hurricanes can connect the dots. “Americans are smart,” she said. “There’s no amount of gutting data that is going to trick Americans into somehow thinking climate change isn’t real.” Trump and his allies are turning electric vehicles into a cultural symbol For the political left and right: Trump said at his inauguration he would end electric-vehicle “mandates,” (even though there is no such mandate to buy electric vehicles). And he has framed them as a symbol of East Coast, liberal elitism. “Electric cars are good if you have a towing company,” he once joked. But one of Trump’s biggest donors and allies is Elon Musk, who made his fortune on electric vehicles. Trump recently pitched Musk’s Teslas on the lawn of the White House and said he bought one. Trump is trying to block states from filling the gaps on climate policy Freeman pointed to how Trump has directed his government to try to stop state laws that interfere with American “energy dominance,” like California’s cap-and-trade law or efforts to make polluters pay for environmental damage. The Trump administration sued Vermont and New York for such laws. Freeman said this is a new front in the war on climate because Trump and his allies aren’t just clipping federal regulations on climate. Now they’re effectively arguing that states can’t regulate greenhouse gas emissions. “We’ve never seen this kind of aggression on both fronts at the same time,” she said. The clean-energy economy is still moving forward Coal is just not a competitive source of energy anymore. China and much of the world are moving full-speed-ahead with electric vehicles and financing global climate projects. “Doubling down on fossil fuels is absurd,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said at a climate summit after Trump’s November victory. “The clean-energy revolution is here.” “The transition is already happening,” Stokes said. “How expensive is Donald Trump going to make this?” | 
