Almost immediately upon taking office, President Donald Trump has begun fulfilling his campaign promise of gutting the EPA, targeting the agency鈥檚 spending and reportedly planning to halt much of its work. He also took on the other liberal bugaboo from the Obama administration鈥攖he long-debated Keystone XL pipeline鈥攁nd both document leaks and transition officials indicate the new commander in chief is going to hand down more regulatory cuts.
Here are the shots fired in the administration鈥檚 first week for the environment.
1. Pipelines Back on Track
On Tuesday, the president聽聽reviving the fates of the Keystone XL and聽Dakota Access聽pipelines, which had been halted by the previous administration due to social and environmental concerns.
The fights over these two pipelines were some of the hardest fought by environmentalists over the last eight years and the Obama administration ended up blocking both of the聽multibillion-dollar聽projects after intense pressure. The pipes would carry oil produced from Alberta鈥檚 tar sands across the Canadian border and down to the U.S.
During his campaign, Trump promised to authorize the pipelines鈥攁nd to require the builders to use American-made steel in the process. “We will build our own pipes, like we used to in the old days,”聽he said at Tuesday鈥檚 signing ceremony of the executive order approving the pipelines. Two days later, TransCanada, the Calgary company building Keystone,聽.
2. Freezes, Gags, and Blackouts
The Trump Administration all of the EPA鈥檚 grants and contracts on Monday,聽pending further review by administration officials. The freeze is expected to end today, but as of this writing it聽hadn't yet been lifted.
Although Myron Ebell, a climate change skeptic and Trump transition team leader, told Reuters that freezes like this were “routine”聽for incoming administrations, an anonymous EPA employee told ProPublica聽“he had never seen anything like it in nearly a decade with the agency,” and that “hiring freezes happened, but freezes on grants and contracts seemed extraordinary.”
On Friday, Ebell 聽he would like to see the EPA鈥檚 staff slashed in half鈥攖he agency currently employs 15,000 people across the country鈥攁nd that he expected the president to seek to cut about $1 billion of the agency鈥檚 $8 billion budget.
3. Regulations on the Chopping Block
Earlier in the week, the new political news site 聽claimed to have received a copy of the Trump transition team鈥檚 鈥淎gency Action鈥 plan for the EPA. It identifies a host of EPA initiatives the administration aims to halt, including: Clean Air Act greenhouse gas regulations that cover new and existing coal and natural gas power plants; CAFE standards, which regulate fuel economy rates for cars; of the Clean Water Act, which prevents water pollution caused by infrastructure or development; and regulations designed to protect wetlands and the Chesapeake Bay.
Ebell, the official who headed up planning on the EPA for the transition, 聽the document was prepared before Trump took office and is not the most up-to-date action plan for the agency. However, other 聽have come to fruition, including the planned withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership, the implementation of the Mexico City Rule on funding foreign NGOs that provide abortion, and a broad hiring freeze across the federal government.
The same leaked memo suggests that the new administration does not believe its own scientists at the EPA. “EPA does not use science to guide regulatory policy as much as it uses regulatory policy to steer the science. This is an old problem at EPA,” the leaked document reads. “In 1992, a blue-ribbon panel of EPA science advisers that [sic] 'science should not be adjusted to fit policy.' But rather than heed this advice, EPA has greatly increased its science manipulation.”
4. Pruitt Moves Forward
Finally, the EPA was brought one step closer to being run by a person who has dedicated himself to halting its policies. On Monday, the Republican chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee said that Scott Pruitt, Trump鈥檚 nominee for EPA Administrator, and demonstrated his ability to lead the agency.
Pruitt, who is currently the attorney general of the state of Oklahoma, is skeptical of the science behind climate change. While attorney general, he sued the EPA at least 14 times to halt the Obama administration鈥檚 environmental policies and Pruitt聽 as 鈥渁 leading advocate against the EPA鈥檚 activist agenda.鈥 Last week, at his confirmation hearing Pruitt , 鈥淪cience tells us that the climate is changing and human activity in some manner impacts that change. The human ability to measure with precision the extent of that impact is subject to continuing debate and dialogue, as well they should be.鈥
Although Democrats widely聽oppose Pruitt, they are a minority in the Senate, and his chances of leading the EPA are improving.