Global Fire Sale

Within the first few short weeks of President Trump’s second go at being President he already has severely damaged the government’s ability to fight climate change, upending American environmental policy with moves that could have lasting implications for Hawaii, the nation, and the planet.

The flurry of Trump actions has stretched the limits of presidential power, and notably:

Trump has gutted federal climate efforts
Rolled back regulations aimed at limiting pollution and given a major boost to the fossil fuel industry
Abandoned efforts to reduce global heating, even as the world has reached record levels of heat that scientists have determined is driven largely by the burning of fossil fuels. Every corner of the world is now experiencing the effects of these rising temperatures in the form of deadlier hurricanes, floods, wildfires and droughts, and species extinction.

To achieve such a wholesale overhaul of the country’s climate and environmental policies in such a short time, the Trump administration has reneged on federal grants, fired federal agency workers en masse, and attacked longstanding environmental regulations.

Trump’s EPA moves to dismantle climate and pollution rules

The Trump administration is also engaged in sweeping efforts to roll back decades of environmental regulations, targeting air quality standards and emissions rules, as well as climate policies that have governed and guided U.S. industrial standards.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under administrator Lee Zeldin, is reconsidering dozens of regulations, including the 2009 finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health, which underpins current climate policies.
Other targets include air pollution limits, rules restricting coal ash contamination, and Biden-era vehicle emissions standards aimed at boosting electric and hybrid car adoption.
Environmental advocates and Democratic lawmakers vow legal challenges, warning that these rollbacks could have severe health and climate consequences.

The move comes as the Trump administration has embarked on a broad dismantling of climate and environmental policy across the federal government. The E.P.A. did not detail in its filing the specifics of its planned rewrite, and Molly Vaseliou, an agency spokeswoman, and that the agency would not comment beyond the filing.

Why this matters:

The Trump administration’s latest EPA overhaul is a gut punch to decades of environmental safeguards, and a significant step toward completely redefining the purpose of the agency. Under Zeldin, the Trump administration’s EPA is taking a wrecking ball to emissions rules, air quality protections, and even the legal backbone of U.S. climate policy. If they succeed, they won’t just be unraveling Biden-era policies — they’ll be reaching back to undo the fundamental science-based regulations that have supported public health by keeping air and water cleaner for decades.

Government climate data quietly removed as Trump administration reshapes policy

Since Donald Trump returned to office, thousands of federal climate and environmental data sets have been deleted or altered, raising concerns about transparency and public access to critical information.

In short:

Around 2,000 records have disappeared from Data.gov since January, including tools tracking climate risks and environmental concerns.
The Biden-era Climate and Economic Screening Tool and the EPA’s E-Screen were quickly removed, but researchers managed to preserve copies.
Legal challenges are emerging, with groups suing federal agencies to restore missing public health and climate resources.

Key quote:

“When you start taking down this information, changing how issues are described and doing so in misleading ways, really, what it is, is censorship and propaganda.”

— Eric Nost, geographer, University of Guelph

Trump’s EPA also moves to roll back chemical safety rules

The Trump administration is pulling back on Biden-era rules that required chemical facilities to adopt stronger safety measures against disasters and public health impacts. The rollback would affect nearly 12,000 facilities producing and otherwise handling hazardous chemicals. “Chemical explosions force entire neighborhoods to evacuate. First responders have died rushing into disasters they weren’t warned about. Workers have suffered burns, lung damage, and worse, all because companies cut corners to save money”, according to Adam Kron, attorney at Earthjustice.

Millions of Americans live near hazardous chemical sites, and past disasters have shown how devastating explosions and leaks can be. Industry groups argue these safety measures are expensive and do little to prevent accidents, but with climate-fueled storms and wildfires threatening industrial sites more than ever, the timing couldn’t be worse.

Why this matters:

More than 130 million people live within three miles of sites that handle hazardous chemicals that were covered by the Biden-era rule, the E.P.A. has estimated. A 2020 Congressional Research Service report said that a “worst-case scenario” accident at any of 2,000 of the most hazardous sites could endanger 100,000 people or more.

EPA cancels $20 billion in climate grants amid legal battle

The Environmental Protection Agency has revoked $20 billion in climate grants issued under the Inflation Reduction Act, escalating a legal fight over the program’s future and presidential authority to withhold funds appropriated by Congress. Trump’s EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin cited unsubstantiated claims of fraud and misalignment with the agency’s new science-denial priorities as reasons for terminating the grants, though no specific cases of fraud were identified.

The decision affects multiple recipients, including Climate United Fund, which has sued to access funds held in a Citibank account that the Trump administration froze.
Democratic lawmakers argue the move is politically motivated and undermines a congressionally authorized program meant to finance clean energy projects vital the national response to global heating impacts.

“Zeldin and Trump are spreading lies in a last-ditch effort to terminate the climate bank because the truth is it will help households save money and deploy clean energy — exactly what Big Oil is afraid of.”

— Sen. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts

Why this all matters:

The funding cuts in question could have sweeping consequences for climate and clean energy initiatives, particularly those aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions and assisting economically disadvantaged communities. Many of these projects, established under the Biden administration, rely on federal grants to support renewable energy development, efficiency upgrades, and pollution reduction efforts.

Beyond the immediate impact on climate initiatives and programs now well underway, the outcome of this legal fight could set a precedent for how future administrations manage federal funds, raising critical questions about the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches.

For communities and industries that depend on these grants, the uncertainty Trump has created adds yet another layer of complexity to an already shifting and politically-driven transactional landscape.