The Trump Tracker
The Trump Administration's assault on environmental protections has been swift and relentless. What is at stake, and what implications will his decisions have on the future of our planet? Keep track below.
(To see all of the regulations and changes the Trump Administration is proposing, go here.)
February 4 - Day 16
February 3 - Day 15
The USDA removes thousands of online records related to the Animal Welfare Act, which regulates the treatment of animals in research labs, puppy mills, circuses, and zoos (National Geographic | February 6, 2017):
"These records have revealed many cases of abuse and mistreatment of animals, incidents that, if the reports had not been publicly posted, would likely have remained hidden. This action plunges journalists, animal welfare organizations, and the public at large into the dark about animal welfare at facilities across the country. The records document violations of the Animal Welfare Act, the federal law that regulates treatment of animals used for research and exhibition. The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), which has maintained the online database, cites privacy concerns as justification for the removal."
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"In response, animal-rights groups have launched a counterattack. On February 6, the Humane Society of the United States initiated legal actionagainst the USDA, arguing that the removal of records violates a 2009 settlement between the two parties. Other groups, including PETA, the Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine, and Born Free USA, have filed a joint lawsuit against the USDA, arguing that in removing this data, the department is in violation of FOIA and that the action hinders the groups’ ability to identify violations of the Animal Welfare Act. The USDA has yet to respond to either legal action."
February 1 - DAY 13
Former ExxonMobil CEO and Chairman Rex Tillerson is confirmed as Secretary of State (New York Times | February 1, 2017):
"Rex W. Tillerson, the former chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil, was confirmed by the Senate on Wednesday in a 56-to-43 vote to become the nation’s 69th secretary of state just as serious strains have emerged with important international allies. ... His views on international affairs are in many ways more conventional than those of Mr. Trump, which is why even Democratic-leaning foreign affairs experts said they welcomed his selection in hopes he would bring ballast to a turbulent administration.
Read more regarding the Tillerson nomination (CNN | February 1, 2017):
"Three Democratic senators split with their party to back Tillerson: Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Mark Warner of Virginia. They were joined by Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with Democrats."
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"The 64-year-old Texan had a shaky confirmation hearing before Corker's committee in January, generating frustration among Democrats and Republicans alike after he dodged a series of questions. He wouldn't agree when asked if Russia's Vladimir Putin -- who has given Tillerson Russia's highest civilian honor for his work there as an oil man -- is a war criminal. Tillerson also avoided condemning human rights abuses in China, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines. And he sidestepped a direct answer about whether humans cause climate change."
House Republicans pass a resolution that would no longer require oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose foreign payments to the SEC (Vox | February 1, 2017):
"Using the little-known Congressional Review Act, the House GOP voted on Wednesday to kill an Obama-era regulation that would require publicly traded oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose any payments that they made to foreign governments, including taxes and royalties.
The rule itself dates back to the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act — when senators from both parties included a provision requiring greater disclosure from mining and drilling companies working abroad. The hope was to cut down on corruption in resource-rich developing countries by increasing transparency. At the time, as Michael Grunwald reports for Politico, Tillerson was Exxon Mobil’s CEO and flew to Washington, DC, to lobby against this provision, arguing that the rule would put his company at a competitive disadvantage and make it harder to do business in places like Russia."
Police officers arrest 76 "water protectors" at Standing Rock camp where the Sioux, other Native Americans, and allies have been protesting the construction of the North Dakota Access Pipeline (The Guardian | February 1, 2017):
"The tense confrontation comes one week after Donald Trump issued an order demanding the revival of the Dakota Access pipeline and the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, reversing Barack Obama’s actions.
The Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which has long argued that the $3.8bn pipeline threatens its water supply and sacred lands, has vowed to fight the order. Activists are seeking to assert indigenous treaty rights, which they say the government and the oil company have violated."
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"The sheriff’s office – which has now made nearly 700 arrests since the Standing Rock demonstrations escalated last summer – said the camp was cleared by 4pm. The activists were taken to five different jails across North Dakota.
Two medics were arrested, according to Noah Morris, a medic who has been at Standing Rock for months."
See more regarding the confrontation at Standing Rock reservation:
- Facebook Video: "Police are massed at the entrance of the Big Camp with line of Humvees, LRAD and police vehicles. Riot Police facing crowd now holding them out of camp."
The Seattle City Council Affordable Housing, Neighborhoods, and Finance Committee voted unanimously to advance a bill to divest $3,000,000,000 (three billion dollars) of city money from Wells Fargo over their investment in the Dakota Access Pipeline (Seattle Times | February 1, 2017):
"In addition to terminating the city’s contract with Wells Fargo, the bill would also require that social-justice principles be considered when awarding all city contracts, including construction projects.
Wells Fargo manages more than $3 billion of the city’s operating account, including a biweekly payroll of $30 million for about 12,000 employees. The average daily balance in the city’s account with the bank is about $73 million.
Jessica Ong, spokeswoman for Wells Fargo, said in a statement, 'We respect all the views being expressed in this dispute, including those of the Seattle City Council members.' Wells Fargo is one of 17 financial institutions involved in financing the oil pipeline."
JANUARY 31 - DAY 12
House Republicans use the Congressional Review Act to move to repeal Obama-era regulations, including laws prohibiting the coal industry from polluting water sources and limiting methane emissions (The Hill | January 31, 2017):
"The stream rule prohibits the coal industry from polluting the water sources near mines, but Republicans say this makes it nearly impossible for these companies to operate and is pushing them out of business."
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Critics have raised concerns that President Trump and the Republican-Controlled Congress are caving to industry at the expense of the environment...
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) previously announced five Obama-era regulations Republicans intend to overturn this week. After they vote Wednesday on the stream protection rule, lawmakers will turn their attention to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s disclosure rule, Labor Department’s blacklisting rule, gun restrictions from the Social Security Administration and the Bureau of Land Management’s methane emissions regulation."
This stance is consistent with earlier reports that House Republicans would overturn "midnight regulations," including environmental protections (The Hill | January 4, 2017):
“While we haven’t yet determined what needs to be repealed first, I expect to start with swift action on at least on the Stream Protection Rule and methane emissions standards, both of which are limits to our energy production,” [House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)] said in a speech on the House floor.
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The Stream Protection Rule from the Interior Department puts new limits and standards on how coal mining companies, both through mountaintop removal and other means, protects and restores streams.
Both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Interior have written rules to limit the methane emissions from oil and natural gas drilling.
JANUARY 30 - DAY 11
Myron Ebell, head of the White House's EPA transition team and noted climate change denier, announced Trump will "definitely" pull out of the Paris Climate Change Accord. It should be noted that even North Korea signed the Paris Accord, making the U.S.'s position on climate change more extreme than an actual military dictatorship's (Independent | January 30, 2017):
"Myron Ebell, who took charge of Mr Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) transition team, said the President was determined to undo policies pushed by Barack Obama to restrict greenhouse gas emissions.
He said the US would 'clearly change its course on climate policy' under the new administration and claimed Mr Trump was 'pretty clear that the problem or the crisis has been overblown and overstated.'"
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"The Paris agreement, successor to the Kyoto Protocols, aims to 'stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.'"
JANUARY 26 - DAY 7
The Doomsday Clock moves 30 seconds closer to midnight in response to man-made and environmental disasters (NPR | January 26, 2017):
"Over the course of 2016, the global security landscape darkened as the international community failed to come effectively to grips with humanity's most pressing existential threats, nuclear weapons and climate change ... This already-threatening world situation was the backdrop for a rise in strident nationalism worldwide in 2016, including in a U.S. presidential campaign during which the eventual victor, Donald Trump, made disturbing comments about the use and proliferation of nuclear weapons and expressed disbelief in the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change."
JANUARY 25 - DAY 6
Greenpeace protestors unfurl a banner on a crane that reads “RESIST” in full view of the White House. Seven were then arrested and charged (New York Times | January 25, 2017):
"Travis Nichols, a spokesman for Greenpeace, the environmental advocacy organization, said the protesters were there 'to resist the environmental, economic and racial injustice that Trump and his administration have already laid out and put into practice.'
Mr. Nichols said they wanted to be sure that the banner would be visible from the White House."
JANUARY 24 - DAY 5
Trump orders the resumption of construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone XL Pipeline, signs a directive ordering an end to protracted environmental reviews, and meets with automaker executives to discuss reducing clean-energy regulations (New York Times | January 24, 2017):
"In his latest moves to dismantle the legacy of his predecessor, Mr. Trump resurrected the Keystone XL pipeline that had stirred years of debate, and expedited another pipeline in the Dakotas that had become a major flash point for Native Americans. He also signed a directive ordering an end to protracted environmental reviews.
'I am, to a large extent, an environmentalist, I believe in it,' Mr. Trump said during a meeting with auto industry executives. 'But it’s out of control, and we’re going to make it a very short process. And we’re going to either give you your permits, or we’re not going to give you your permits. But you’re going to know very quickly. And generally speaking, we’re going to be giving you your permits.'"
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"Mr. Trump’s biggest target may be emission rules that would force the closing of hundreds of coal-fired power plants meant to be replaced by wind and solar power. But they are caught up in court battles that could run for months or years.
By contrast, he could more quickly soften Mr. Obama’s rules requiring tougher vehicle emission standards. Mr. Trump met on Tuesday with executives of major American automakers, who complained that before leaving office, Mr. Obama finalized an ambitious E.P.A. rule requiring that vehicles average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2026. Mr. Trump said he would help with burdensome regulations, but offered no specifics.
Mr. Trump could lift a moratorium instituted last year by Mr. Obama on new coal mining leases on public lands. As soon as next month, the Republican-led Congress may pass legislation undoing Mr. Obama’s regulations on the practice of mountaintop-removal coal mining and on leaks of planet-warming methane emissions from oil and gas drilling rigs."
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"In addition to the Keystone and Dakota directives, Mr. Trump signed three others intended to ease the way for businesses and to promote American manufacturing. One instructed the Commerce Department to develop a plan to ensure that future pipelines built in the United States be constructed of American-made materials.
Another was aimed at streamlining what he called 'the incredibly cumbersome, long, horrible permitting process and reducing regulatory burdens for domestic manufacturing.' The last directive was intended to expedite environmental reviews for 'high-priority infrastructure projects' like highways and bridges."
The EPA is ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to freeze all grants and contracts (CBS News | January 24, 2017):
"Emails sent to EPA staff since President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Friday and reviewed by The Associated Press detailed specific prohibitions banning press releases, blog updates or posts to the agency’s social media accounts.
The Trump administration has also ordered what it called a temporary suspension of all new business activities at the department, including issuing task orders or work assignments to EPA contractors. The orders were expected to have a significant and immediate impact on EPA activities nationwide."
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to stop publishing any papers or research. All communication with the press would also have to be authorized and vetted by the White House (New York Daily News | January 24, 2017):
"Sierra Club Climate Policy Director Liz Perera called the moves a 'major red flag for all Americans at the start of a new administration.'"
The USDA later rescinds an order stopping scientists and other employees at its main research division from publishing documents meant to explain science to the public (Buzzfeed News | January 25, 2017):
"In an email sent to scientists on Tuesday evening and obtained by BuzzFeed News, Chavonda Jacobs-Young, administrator of the department’s science arm, the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), told researchers the original order should not have been issued and 'is hereby rescinded.'”
Badlands National Park Service posts a series of tweets about climate change that were later deleted (BBC News | January 24, 2017):
"'Today, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is higher than at any time in the last 650,000 years. #climate,' said one of the tweets.
The posts by Badlands National Park in South Dakota were widely shared but had all been removed by Tuesday evening."
The EPA delays implementation of biofuels requirements and 29 other regulations (Reuters | January 24, 2017):
"U.S. regulators under the new presidential administration have instituted a freeze on rules key to the country's farm belt, agricultural groups said on Tuesday, heightening uncertainty for some of the regions that helped propel Donald Trump into office.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will delay implementation of this year's biofuels requirements along with 29 other regulations finalized in the last weeks of Barack Obama's presidency, according to a government notice. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will pause rules affecting livestock, groups said."
Trump's administration instructs the Environmental Protection Agency to remove the climate change page from its website (Reuters | January 25, 2017):
"U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to remove the climate change page from its website, two agency employees told Reuters, the latest move by the newly minted leadership to erase ex-President Barack Obama's climate change initiatives.
The employees were notified by EPA officials on Tuesday that the administration had instructed EPA's communications team to remove the website's climate change page, which contains links to scientific global warming research, as well as detailed data on emissions. The page could go down as early as Wednesday, the sources said."
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"The page includes links to the EPA's inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, which contains emissions data from individual industrial facilities as well as the multiagency Climate Change Indicators report, which describes trends related to the causes and effects of climate change.
The Trump administration's recently appointed team to guide the post-Obama transition has drawn heavily from the energy industry lobby and pro-drilling think tanks, according to a list of the newly introduced 10-member team."
Scientists begin organizing a march on Washington to protest the administration’s hostility toward science (Washington Post | January 25, 2017):
"According to the group's website, the march is aimed not just at scientists. 'Anyone who believes in empirical science [can participate],' the site reads. 'That's it. That's the only requirement.' Apparently aware of the conflicts over inclusion of minorities the Women's March, organizers pledged to establish a diversity committee and to ensure that the steering committee is diverse."
January 23 - Day 4
Trump makes unsubstantiated claims that he has "received awards on the environment" (Washington Post | January 24, 2017):
"One of Donald Trump’s first proposals as president is to help businesses by cutting regulations by 75 percent. Trump cited environmental regulations as an example during a meeting with business leaders, but claimed he was a “very big person” on the environment who has “received awards on the environment.”
Trump touted his alleged environmental accolades as early as 2011, when he said during a “Fox and Friends” interview, “I’ve received many, many environmental awards.” He repeatedly claimed thisduring the 2016 presidential campaign: 'I’ve won many environmental awards, by the way. I’ve actually been called an environmentalist, if you can believe that.'"
January 20 - Day 1 (Inauguration Day)
Trump orders the National Parks Service to stop using social media after RTing factual, side by side photos of the crowds for the 2009 and 2017 inaugurations (CNN | January 23, 2017):
"After the National Park Service retweeted messages that negatively compared the crowd sizes at Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration to Donald Trump's inauguration Friday, representatives from the new administration asked the Interior Department's digital team to temporarily stop using Twitter -- a decision the agency now claims was out of a concern the account was hacked."
Read more:
January 19 - Last Day of the Obama Administration
Trump vows to cut funding for the following environmental organizations (TIME | January 24, 2017):
- Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Justice Department
"Budget: $123 million
Cost per American: $0.38
The ENRD brings cases against those who break pollution-related laws. In one recent case, the division levied a $160,000 penalty against Iowa's Meadowvale Dairy for violating the Clean Water Act."
- UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
"U.S. Funding: Estimated $10 million
Cost per American: $0.03
The IPCC issues reports from the world's leading climate scientists on the state of global warming, and its impact on human populations. According to NASA, 2016 was the hottest year on record."
- Office of Electricity Deliverability and Energy Reliability
"Budget: $262 million
Cost per American: $0.81
Created after the 2003 blackout left nearly 50 million Americans and Canadians without power, the OE invests in the electric grid to make it more modern, reliable and secure. The agency recently released a comprehensive report on how America can improve energy allocation."
- Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
"Budget: $2.9 billion
Cost per American: $8.95
The EERE works "to create and sustain American leadership in the transition to a global clean energy economy." What does that look like? In one recent demonstration project, the EERE helped a South Carolina-based BMW plant use bio-methane gas from a nearby landfill to power some forklifts."
- Office of Fossil Energy
"Budget: $878 million
Cost per American: $2.71
With projects like the development of clean coal technology, this office works to reduce the carbon footprint of fossil fuels. Its Petra Nova project, based in Thompsons, Texas, is now 'the world’s largest post-combustion carbon-capture system.' Petra Nova received $190 million from the Department of Energy, and has the potential to capture '1.6 million tons of CO2 per year from an existing coal-fired power plant.'"