Clean Wisconsin has been keeping track of the many attacks on bedrock environmental safeguards being carried out by the Trump Administration. Dozens of rules and regulations that protect our air, water, land, endangered species and more are being targeted. With so much happening in such a short time, how do you know what’s important, what’s just a lot of bluster, and what’s even legal? 

Host: Amy Barrilleaux

Guest: Brett Korte, Clean Wisconsin attorney

Resources for You:

Running list of attacks on environmental safeguards

1/20 Freeze All In-Progress Standards 

EO - Freezes in-progress climate, clean air, clean water (including proposed limits on PFAS in industrial wastewater) and consumer protections.

1/20 Energy Emergency Declaration

EO - Authorizes federal government to expedite permitting and approval of fossil fuel, infrastructure, and mining projects and circumvent Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act requirements.

1/20 Withdrawal from Paris Climate Agreement

EO - Reverses the US' international commitment to tackling climate change and reducing pollution.

1/20 Revokes Biden Climate Crisis and Environmental Justice Executive Actions

EO -  Reverses U.S. commitment to fight climate change and its impacts, and protect overburdened communities.

1/20 Attacks on Clean Car Standards

EO -  to stop clean car standards that required automakers to reduce tailpipe pollution from vehicles beginning in 2027.

1/20 Resumes LNG Permitting

EO - Expedites Liquid Natural Gas export terminal approval over analysis finding exports raise energy costs for consumers.

Attacks Climate and Clean Energy Investments from IRA and BIL

EO - Freezes unspent funds from the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and directs agencies to reassess.

1/20 Attacks NEPA Protections

EO - Rescinds order requiring White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to assess environmental and community impacts and allow community input into federal infrastructure projects.

1/21 Expands Offshore Oil Drilling

EO - Reopens U.S. coastlines to offshore drilling.

1/21 Terminate American Climate Corps

EO - Ends all programs of the American Climate Corps, which created thousands of jobs combatting climate change and protecting and restoring public lands.

1/21 Freezes New Wind Energy Leases

EO - Withdraws wind energy leasing from U.S. waters and federal lands.

1/21 Open Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other Alaska Lands for Drilling

EO - Reopens sensitive federal lands and waters in Alaska to drilling.

1/28 EPA’s Science Advisory Panel Members Fired

Memorandum - Acting EPA administrator James Payne dismisses members of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and Science Advisory Board, which provides independent expertise to the agency on air quality standards and sources of air pollution.

1/28 EPA Suspends Solar For All Grants

Memorandum - The EPA halted $7 billion in contractually obligated grants for Solar For All, an Inflation Reduction Act program that delivers clean energy and lower prices to vulnerable communities

1/31 Trump administration scrubs "climate change" from federal websites

Memorandum - Mentions of climate change have been removed from federal websites such the Department of Agriculture, which includes the Forest Service and climate-smart agriculture programs, and the EPA.

2/3 Trump requires removal 10 existing rules for every new rule

EO - The order requires that when an agency finalizes a new regulation or guidance they identify 10 existing rules to be cut.

2/3 Interior secretary weakens public lands protections in favor of fossil fuel development

Sec Order - After Trump’s "Unleashing American Energy" executive order, Interior Secretary Burgum ordered the reinstatement of fossil fuel leases, opened more land for drilling, and issued orders weakening protections of public lands, national monuments and endangered species, and overturned advanced clean energy and climate mitigation strategies.

2/5 Energy secretary announces review of appliance efficiency standards

Sec Order - Energy Secretary Wright ordered a review of appliance standards following Trump’s Day One order attacking rules improving the efficiency of household appliances such as toilets, showerheads, and lightbulbs as part of a secretarial order intended to increase the extraction and use of fossil fuels.

2/5 Army Corps of Engineers halts approval of renewables

Guidance via DOD - The Army Corps of Engineers singled out 168 projects – those that focused on renewable energy projects – out of about 11,000 pending permits for projects on private land. Though the hold was lifted, it was not immediately clear if permitting had resumed.

2/6 Transportation Department orders freeze of EV charging infrastructure program

Memorandum - A Transportation Department memo ordered the suspension of $5 billion in federal funding, authorized by Congress under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, for states to build electric vehicle chargers.

2/11 SEC starts process to kill climate disclosure rule

Memorandum - The acting chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission paused the government’s legal defense of a rule requiring companies to identify the impact of their business on climate in regulatory findings. The rule was challenged in court by 19 Republican state attorneys general and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s Liberty Energy, among others.

2/14 EPA fires hundreds of staff

Memorandum - The Trump administration’s relentless assault on science and career expertise at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency continued today with the firing of almost 400 staff who had ‘probationary’ status.

2/14 DOE issues the first LNG export authorization under new Trump administration

DOE Secretary Wright issued an export authorization for the Commonwealth LNG project in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, despite a 2024 DOE report finding that unfettered LNG exports increase energy bills and climate pollution.

2/18 Trump issues order stripping independent agencies of independence

EO - Trump signed an executive order stripping independent regulatory agencies, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of their independence, moving them to submit proposed rules and final regulations for review by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) and granting the attorney general exclusive authority over legal interpretations of rules. The order is likely to be challenged as Congress created these agencies specifically to be insulated from White House interference.

2/19 Zeldin recommends striking endangerment finding

Memorandum - After Trump’s "Unleashing American Energy" executive order, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has told the White House he would recommend rescinding the bedrock justification defining six climate pollutants – carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride – as air pollution to be regulated by the Clean Air Act.

2/19 Trump administration moves to rescind all CEQ regulatory authority

Rulemaking - The Trump administration has moved to rescind the Council on Environmental Quality’s role in crafting and implementing environmental regulations, revoking all CEQ orders since 1977 that shape how federal agencies comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) which requires the government to consider and disclose environmental impacts of its actions.

2/19 Trump directs agencies to make deregulation recommendations to DOGE

EO - Trump issues executive order directing agencies to work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to make recommendations that will accelerate Trump’s efforts to dismantle regulations across the federal government as part of his 10 out, 1 in policy. Among the protections likely to be in DOGE’s crosshairs are those that keep polluters from ignoring environmental laws and protect clean air and water.

2/19 FEMA staff advised to scrub "changing climate" and other climate terms from documents

Memorandum - A Federal Emergency Management Agency memo listed 10 climate-related words and phrases, including "changing climate," “climate resilience,” and “net zero," to be removed from FEMA documents. The memo comes after USDA workers were ordered to scrub mentions of climate change from websites.

2/21 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund Director Placed on Administrative Leave

Guidance - According to media reports, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin has put the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) director on administrative leave. The GGRF is a $27 billion federal financing program that addresses the climate crisis and is injecting billions of dollars in local economic development projects to lower energy prices and reduce pollution especially in the rural, urban, and Indigenous communities most impacted by climate change and frequently left behind by mainstream finance.

2/27 Hundreds fired as layoffs begin at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Guidance - On Thursday, February 27, about 800 employees at NOAA, the agency responsible for the nation’s bedrock weather, climate, fisheries, and marine research, were fired in the latest round of Trump administration-led layoffs. The layoffs could jeopardize NOAA’s ability to provide life-saving severe weather forecasts, long-term climate monitoring, deep-sea research and fisheries management, and other essential research and policy.

3/10 Energy secretary says climate change a worthwhile tradeoff for growth

Announcement - Speaking at the CERAWeek conference, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the Trump administration sees climate change as “a side effect of building the modern world,” and pledged to “end the Biden administration’s irrational, quasi-religious policies on climate change."

3/10 Zeldin, Musk Cut $1.7B in Environmental Justice Grants

Guidance - EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the cancellation of 400 environmental justice-related grants, in violation of a court order barring the Trump administration from freezing "equity-based" grants and contracts.

3/11 EPA eliminates environmental justice offices, staff

Memorandum - EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin ordered the closure of environmental justice offices at the agency’s headquarters and at all 10 regional offices and eliminate all related staff positions "immediately." The reversal comes just days after the EPA reinstated environmental justice and civil rights employees put on leave in early February.

3/12 EPA Announcement to Revise "Waters of the United States" Rule

Announcement - The EPA will redefine waters of the US, or WOTUS, to comply with the US Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Sackett v. EPA, which lifted Clean Water Act jurisdiction on many wetlands, Administrator Lee Zeldin said

3/14 Zeldin releases 31-rollback ‘hit list’

Memorandum (announced, not in effect as of 4/10) - EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced plans to dismantle federal air quality and carbon pollution regulations, identifying 31 actions ranging from from soot standards and power plant pollution rules to the endangerment finding – the scientific and legal underpinning of the Clean Air Act.

3/14 EPA halts enforcement of pollution rules at energy facilities

Memorandum - According to a leaked memo, the EPA’s compliance office has halted enforcement of pollution regulations on energy facilities and barred consideration of environmental justice concerns. The memo states: "Enforcement and compliance assurance actions shall not shut down any stage of energy production (from exploration to distribution) or power generation absent an imminent and substantial threat to human health or an express statutory or regulatory requirement to the contrary.”

3/14 Trump revokes order encouraging renewables

EO - Trump signed an executive order rescinding a Biden-era proclamation encouraging the development of renewable energy. Biden’s order under the Defense Production Act permitted the Department of Energy to direct funds to scale up domestic production of solar and other renewable technologies.

3/17 EPA plans to eliminate science staff

Memorandum - Leaked documents describe plans to lay off as many as 1,155 scientists from labs across the country. These chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists are among the experts who monitor air and water quality, cleanup of toxic waste, and more.

3/16 EPA invites waivers on mercury pollution and other hazardous pollutants

Memorandum - The EPA invited coal- and oil-fired power plants to apply for exemptions to limits on mercury and other toxic pollutants under the Clean Air Act. Mercury is an extremely dangerous pollutant that causes brain damage to babies and fetuses; in addition to mercury, pollution from power plants includes hazardous chemicals that can lead to cancer, or damage to the lungs, kidneys, nervous system and cardiovascular system.

4/3 Trump administration adds "deregulation suggestion" website

A new page on regulations.gov allows members of the public to submit "deregulation" ideas. The move is the latest in the Trump administration’s efforts to slash public health, safety, and climate safeguards, and comes soon after the administration offered companies the opportunity to send the EPA an email if they wished to be exempted from Clean Air Act protections.

4/8 Series of four EOs to boost coal 

EO - Under the four orders, Trump uses his emergency authority to allow some older coal-fired power plants set for retirement to keep producing electricity to meet rising U.S. power demand amid growth in data centers, artificial intelligence and electric cars. Trump also directed federal agencies to identify coal resources on federal lands, lift barriers to coal mining and prioritize coal leasing on U.S. lands.

In a related action, Trump also signed a proclamation offering coal-fired power plants a two-year exemption from federal requirements to reduce emissions of toxic chemicals such as mercury, arsenic and benzene.

4/9 Executive Order Attacking State Climate Laws

EO - Directs the U.S. Attorney General to sue or block state climate policies deemed "burdensome" to fossil fuel interests — including laws addressing climate change, ESG investing, carbon taxes, and environmental justice.

4/9 New expiration dates on existing energy rules

EO - The order directs ten agencies and subagencies to assign one-year expiration dates to existing energy regulations. If they are not extended, they will expire no later than September 30, 2026, according to a White House fact sheet on the order. The order also said any new regulations should include a five-year expiration, unless they are deregulatory. That means any future regulations would only last for five years unless they are extended.

4/17 Narrow Endangered Species Act to allow for habitat destruction

The Trump administration is proposing to significantly limit the Endangered Species Act's power to preserve crucial habitats by changing the definition of one word: harm. The Endangered Species Act prohibits actions that “harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect” endangered plants and animals. The word “harm” has long been interpreted to mean not just the direct killing of a species, but also severe harm to their environment