Trump II Transition Team Making Plans to Reverse Biden Energy, Environment Policy, Expand Fossil Fuel Production.

Trump II Taps Former Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-NY) to Head EPA.

Trump II Picks ND Governor Doug Burgum to Lead Department of the Interior. Missed this yesterday. Apparently this man is also now Trump II’s ‘Energy Czar’.

Trump II Halts Pending Environmental Litigation, Shuffles Lawyers and Staff Out of DOJ Environment Law Department.

Directs federal agencies to expand domestic timber production by streamlining environmental reviews, setting higher timber sale targets, and expediting project approvals. It states it aims to reduce reliance on imports, lower construction costs, improve forest management and remove regulatory delays.

The changes will have to go through public comment, etc, before they take effect.

Initiates the closure of the Department of Education.

The Trump II administration is terminating grants for two clean energy projects and placing approximately 300 others under review, aligning with its focus on fossil fuel development. The Department of Energy canceled two awards to the nonprofit think tank RMI, including a $5.3 million project aimed at retrofitting low-income multifamily buildings in Massachusetts and California to enhance energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Trump II Agriculture Secretary declares an emergency and OKs logging in millions of acres of U.S. national forests. The memo cites risks of wildfire and pest infestation and the president's executive order directing the agency to boost logging to justify the declaration.

Tucked into Last Week's emergency order opening millions of acres of national forests to logging was a further notice that the Agriculture Secretary would open thousands of acres of land in Nevada and New Mexico to gas drilling, mining, and geo-thermal development. These lands had been set aside by the Biden administration late in the former president's term.

The order directs Federal agencies to identify and evaluate state and local laws, regulations, and practices that burden the identification, development, use, or investment in domestic energy resources, particularly those addressing climate change or involving environmental initiatives. The Attorney General, in consultation with the heads of appropriate executive departments and agencies, is tasked with identifying these laws and regulations that may be unconstitutional, preempted by Federal law, or unenforceable. The focus is on laws that potentially undermine the goal of "American energy dominance,"" such as those that impose barriers to interstate and international trade, control energy development on Federal land, or impose fines on energy producers.

The order directs Federal agencies to increase domestic energy production, particularly in the coal industry. The National Energy Dominance Council is to designate coal as a "mineral," thus allowing it to receive all benefits under Executive Order 14241. The Secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture, and Energy are to identify coal resources on federal lands and propose policies to address any impediments to their mining, with a focus on the potential impact on electricity costs and grid reliability. The Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture are also instructed to prioritize coal leasing and expedite environmental reviews to facilitate coal mining on public lands.

Trump II interior secretary Doug Burgum called for a halt to “all construction activities” on the Empire Wind project off Long Island. The project was designed to generate enough electricity to power about 500,000 homes. Secretary Burgum said the stoppage would allow for additional review of the project. New York's governor said she would "fight this decision every step of the way."

The order directs Federal agencies to reassess the prohibition on commercial fishing within the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (PRIMNM) boundaries. The National Marine Fisheries Service and the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council are identified as effective managers of regional fisheries. The order finds that appropriately managed commercial fishing would not harm the scientific and historic objects that the PRIMNM protects, and notes that the prohibition on commercial fishing has negatively impacted American fishing fleets and territories dependent on the fishing industry.

The Interior Department says it will fast-track approvals for minin, gas, and oil extraction on federal lands. This comes in response to the president's previous declaration of an "energy emergency."

The order directs federal agencies to commemorate National Park Week from April 19 through April 27, 2025. The week's events will start with a commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord at Minute Man National Historical Park in Massachusetts. The order also encourages all Americans to learn more about the natural and historical heritage of the national parks.

The order directs federal agencies to accelerate the development of seabed mineral resources and secure supply chains for defense, infrastructure, and energy sectors. The Secretary of Commerce is instructed to expedite the process for issuing seabed mineral exploration licenses and commercial recovery permits, and to provide a report identifying private sector opportunities for seabed mineral resource exploration and processing. The Secretary of the Interior is directed to establish an expedited process for reviewing and approving permits for seabed mineral prospecting.

The EPA will transfer 130 scientists from its independent research group to chemical review and approval labs. The scientists had been working on health and environmental research.

The Trump II administration wants to shrink the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument by half-a-million square miles and open it to commercial fishing. California, meanwhile, is looking to extend the 16% of state-protected shoreline by another 2%.

Trump II Administration has temporarily paused air-quality monitoring at all 63 national parks across the country. The program collects data on harmful pollutants and ozone. In many regions of the country, Parks Service monitors are the only available air quality monitors.

Last month the EIA released a pared-down version of its signature report: the Annual Energy Outlook. Fifty-three pages of narrative and context were removed, leaving only data tables and a brief methodology statement. It has now canceled another key report, the International Energy Outlook for 2025. The agency's data and reports are considered to be the "gold standard" by energy industry insiders, policymakers, and scientists.

The familiar energy-efficiency program is set to be closed, along with the EPA’s climate change office.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it would stop keeping track of the cost of climate and weather disasters that cause at least $1 billion in damage. Insurers, government policy-makers, and scientists relay on this data. The NOAA said it would archive and make available the existing data, which covers 1980-2024.

The order directs federal agencies, specifically the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of the Army, and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, to implement measures to prevent the spread of invasive carp in the Great Lakes Basin. This includes supporting the Brandon Road Interbasin Project, a joint project involving the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the States of Illinois and Michigan, designed to prevent invasive carp from reaching the Great Lakes. The federal government has allocated $274 million for this project and urges Illinois to acquire the necessary land to begin construction by July 1, 2025.

A directive from the White House instructs agencies to stop considering the social cost of carbon when weighing the costs and benefits of a particular policy. The Biden administration used it to tighten emissions from cars, power plants, factories, and oil refineries. It has been in use for two decades.

With hurricane season just a few weeks away, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has canceled its strategic plan, Wired reports. In a memo, agency leaders said the existing plan was scotched because it no longer aligned with administration goals, and a new plan would be unveiled later this summer. FEMA employees told Wired they couldn't recall a time when a strategic plan was canceled without a new one in place.

The Environmental Protection Agency has drafted plans to remove limits on greenhouse gases emitted by power plants, according to documents reviewed by the NY Times. The erstwhile air quality watchdog argues in the draft plan that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from power plants do not contribute significantly to dangerous pollution, or to climate change, because they are a small and declining share of global emissions.

The National Geodetic Survey, an agency within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the oldest scientific agency in the U.S., is struggling to carry out its work due to doge-directed losses of funding and staff. The NGS maintains the government's framework of spatial information: latitudes, longitudes, elevations, etc. The agency's work is critical to the accuracy of GPS devices, infrastructure design and construction, floodplain mapping, and more. More cuts loom on the horizon: The NOAA budget proposed by the Office of Management and Budget cuts the National Geodetic Survey's parent organization's funding in half.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said his department would cancel $3.7 billion in grants funding 24 projects aimed at developing decarbonization or carbon sequestration technology. Wright's statement included the usual administration boilerplate that accompanies cuts like these: "The Trump administration is doing our due diligence to ensure we are utilizing taxpayer dollars to strengthen our national security, bolster affordable, reliable energy sources and advance projects that generate the highest possible return on investment." These program cancellations are part of a broader audit of 179 climate programs worth $15 billion.

The Trump administration announced it would end federal protections for millions of acres of Alaska wilderness, opening it up to oil drilling and mining. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said president Biden had exceeded his authority when his administration banned mining and drilling in the area last year. The site is known as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and was created during the early 1900s to provide a petroleum reserve for the Navy.

The proclamation declares June 2025 as National Ocean Month, urging Americans to reflect on the value and importance of oceans. It highlights the administration's commitment to restoring maritime dominance, including offshore critical mineral exploration and production, and the opening of the Pacific Remote Islands National Monument to commercial fishing. The proclamation also emphasizes efforts to boost domestic seafood production and exports, and to end trade practices detrimental to American fishermen.

The Department of Justice has reversed decades old precedent and concluded that the president has the authority to abolish protected lands set aside as national monuments by previous presidents. The new legal opinion undoes an opinion written in 1938. That interpretation of the 1906 Antiquities Act had allowed for millions of acres of federal lands to be off limits to miners, oil driller, and other interests. According to the opinion, authored by the department's Office of Legal Counsel, the president can determine that previously declared monuments “either never were or no longer are deserving of the Act’s protections; and such an alteration can have the effect of eliminating entirely the reservation of the parcel of land previously associated with a national monument.”

The order directs the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Commerce, and the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works to revoke a previous memorandum from 2023, which proposed breaching four dams on the Lower Snake River, eliminating over 3,000 megawatts of hydroelectric generating capacity. The current order also instructs these department heads to withdraw from a related Memorandum of Understanding and rescind a Notice of Intent to prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Columbia River System Operations. The heads of departments are further directed to develop a new schedule for completing this Environmental Impact Statement.

The administration plans to reconsider a ban on the only form of asbestos still used in the United States. "White" asbestos is banned in 50 countries due to its link to lung cancer. It is used in the U.S. for roofing, textiles, cement, brake pads, and other uses. The Biden-era E.P.A proposed the ban in 2024. The Trump administration now plans to delay the ban and review the rule, a process that can take several years.

Congressional Republicans pulled together as expected after a few hours of noisy faux-independence and voted to pass the president's signature agenda item: the One Big Beautiful Bill. It's got tax breaks for the wealthy, benefit cuts for the poor, and a ginormous budget bump for the Department of Homeland Security (and a more modest one for the Pentagon). We'll probably learn more of what it's got over the coming days as observers delve into its nooks and crannies. Happy Fourth of July, America.

The order directs federal agencies to prioritize conservation and outdoor recreation. The National Park Service and the United States Forest Service are instructed to address deferred maintenance, costing $23 billion and $10.8 billion respectively. All federal land management agencies are to promote stewardship of natural resources, expand access to public lands for recreation, and encourage voluntary conservation efforts. The order establishes the President's Make America Beautiful Again Commission, chaired by the Secretary of the Interior and including officials from Defense, Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency among others. This Commission will advise on conserving national treasures and natural resources, improving conservation efforts, and expanding access to outdoor recreation opportunities.

According to documents reviewed by the NY Times, the Energy department plans to eliminate hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for wind and solar energy projects. Cuts are also planned for programs that help moderate and low-income families pay for energy. The funding has been approved by Congress and was slated to be allocated during the fiscal year that ends in September. "Cuts include reducing money for wind power projects to about $30 million from $137 million, and solar power to about $42 million from $318 million," according to the Times' report. Democratic lawmakers say the cuts are illegal.

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate its scientific research arm and will begin firing hundreds of scientists. The Office of Research and Development provides the research that backstops almost all of the agency's policies and regulations. The office had around 1,100 employees at the beginning of the Trump II administration, but more than 300 have already left, having accepted DOGE deferred resignation offers. The department didn't say how many of the remaining 830 employees would ultimately be let go.

The order directs federal agencies to take immediate action to address the slow pace of rebuilding in Los Angeles following devastating wildfires. It criticizes state and local governments for their handling of the disaster and the subsequent recovery process, specifically for delaying or preventing reconstruction by approving only a fraction of the necessary permits. The order also notes that despite the federal government clearing over 2.6 million tons of debris from more than 9,500 properties and approving numerous individual relief claims, the majority of the tens of thousands of homes and businesses destroyed in the wildfires have not yet been rebuilt a year later.

The order directs federal agencies to lift restrictions on commercial fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument in the Atlantic Ocean. The decision is based on the conclusion that managed commercial fishing does not pose a risk to the area's objects of historic and scientific interest. The order also highlights that all fish species in the area are already subject to federal protections under existing laws, including the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which ensures long-term sustainability of marine fisheries.

This proclamation declares March 24, 2026, as National Agriculture Day. It recognizes farmers, ranchers, and others in the agriculture sector and highlights federal actions to support them, including investments to improve soil health and water quality, efforts to expand markets and supply chain resilience, deregulatory measures to reduce equipment costs, and the provision of over $40 billion in assistance.

The order directs federal agencies to exempt the United States Air Force’s jet fighter training operations in Idaho, Oregon, and Nevada from Federal, State, interstate, and local requirements, administrative authority, process, and sanctions related to the control and abatement of water pollution, while preserving requirements under 33 U.S.C. 1316 and 1317. The exemption applies for one year from April 20, 2026, through April 20, 2027, and the Secretary of the Air Force is directed to publish the determination in the Federal Register.