Setting the stage for Trump

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Jan 09, 2024 View in browser   By Jordan Wolman THE BIG IDEA Former President Donald Trump won't hold back his climate instincts in a second term, come fire or high water. | Charlie Neibergall/AP DECONSTRUCTION PROJECT — What would U.S. climate policy look like if former President Donald Trump succeeds in winning a second White House term later this year? Same as before, with more planning, Scott Waldman reports for POLITICO’s E&E News. Dozens of conservative groups have banded together to craft what they’re calling Project 2025. The effort, led by the Heritage Foundation and partially authored by former Trump administration officials, calls for ramping up fossil fuel production and decimating federal climate science, among other things. “We are writing a battle plan, and we are marshaling our forces,” said Paul Dans, director of Project 2025 at the Heritage Foundation. “Never before has the whole conservative movement banded together to systematically prepare to take power Day 1 and deconstruct the administrative state.” Trump was no friend to greens in his first term, during which he withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords, attempted to dismantle fossil fuel regulations and installed energy industry leaders in positions of power. But his plan to restructure NOAA with climate science critics failed, as did an effort to scrutinize the National Climate Assessment. All bets would be off if he wins a second term, said Will Happer, a climate skeptic who was an adviser to Trump’s National Security Council. After the plan to conduct a hostile review of the National Climate Assessment was scuttled, Trump assured Happer that he’d pick it right back up in a second term. “He said, ‘Well, we were going to do this, but it’s dragged on and on, the election is coming, and it’s the wrong time to start it. Let’s do this in my second term,’” Happer recalled about Trump. Though the lack of fear about reelection could embolden Trump on climate policy, it could backfire against him on the campaign trail, said Andrew Rosenberg, a senior official at NOAA during the Clinton administration. “Eight years ago, he might have had a more receptive audience, but I think that’s so much just his base now and his language has gotten so much more extreme, it just sounds bizarre,” said Rosenberg. “He seems even more out of touch to me given what’s happened in the last few years, given where the climate discussion is and where the nation is.” WASHINGTON WATCH ESG EVERYWHERE — A Republican member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board is trying to bring the banking regulator into the ever-broadening GOP war against corporate environmental, social and governance policies. Jonathan McKernan, one of two Republicans on the five-member board, wants the agency to investigate whether BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street are abusing their shareholder power to align big banks with their ESG objectives, Jordan reports. McKernan said the FDIC should rethink its oversight of the asset managers' relationships with banks in light of their efforts to drive change at companies they invest in, raising questions as to whether they are truly passive investors or effectively exerting control. While his investigation proposal faces long odds of being blessed by the FDIC board’s Democratic majority, McKernan said he’s hoping another member will help him get the issue on the agency’s agenda. He said in an interview that although it would be unusual for the regulator to directly investigate non-bank firms, he thinks it has the authority to do so. NADA FOR NUCLEAR — The U.S. Department of Energy has yet to find a single qualified taker for its $6 billion package of Bipartisan Infrastructure Act funding to bail out struggling or recently shuttered nuclear power facilities, Brian Dabbs reports for POLITICO’s E&E News. DOE tentatively approved a $1.1 billion grant package in 2022 for Diablo Canyon, California’s last operating nuclear power plant, but no contract has been signed yet. The Biden administration sees nuclear as a key zero-carbon emissions source of electricity, but some green groups oppose the bailout program, citing the threat of environmental contamination and meltdowns. AROUND THE NATION ELECTORAL CLIMATE — Rep. John Curtis’s entry into the crowded field of Utah Republicans angling to fill the Senate seat being vacated by Mitt Romney will provide a test of whether a GOP candidate can win a competitive race with a climate-focused message, Josh Siegel and Kelsey Tamborrino report. Curtis, a former Democrat who founded the Conservative Climate Caucus, is hoping his call to embrace policies aimed at fighting global warming resonates with voters in the nation’s youngest state. “The success I’ve had in my current district, which is coal, oil and gas, shows there is a way for Republicans to talk about this in a way that doesn’t alienate people who come from that industry,” the four-term House member said in an interview. “The fact I have leaned into an issue that is not typically traditional [among Republicans] is helpful to me.” In some ways, it’s a choice between Romney’s centrist positioning and more conservative candidates. Though deeply red, Utah might be more ready than other states to embrace climate-friendly policies given voters’ concerns over shorter ski seasons, a shrinking Great Salt Lake, and worsening wildfires and drought. “In a state with the Great Salt Lake, it is probably easier to talk about climate change from a Republican perspective than it is in most of the states in the union,” said Kevin Book, managing director of ClearView Energy Partners, a D.C.-based research group. YOU TELL US GAME ON — Welcome to the Long Game, where we tell you about the latest on efforts to shape our future. Join us every Tuesday as we keep you in the loop on the world of sustainability. Team Sustainability is editor Greg Mott and reporters Jordan Wolman and Allison Prang. Reach us all at gmott@politico.com, jwolman@politico.com and aprang@politico.com. Sign up for the Long Game. It's free! WHAT WE'RE CLICKING — Researchers have found that bottled water contains thousands of plastic particles tiny enough to get into humans’ bloodstreams, Bloomberg reports. — The Biden administration is planning to spend $1 billion to help yellow school buses go green, according to the Washington Post. — The New York Times takes a look at a $500 million engineering project that aims to stem rising sea levels by saving glaciers.   Follow us on Twitter Debra Kahn @debra_kahn Greg Mott @gwmott Jordan Wolman @jordanwolman Allison Prang @AllisonPrang   Follow us

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