The US is once again going where no rich country has gone before. Earlier this month, the White House topped off a year of regulatory rollbacks around climate change by repealing the “endangerment finding,” which is the rule that allows the Environmental Protection Agency to curb carbon emissions because of their health consequences.
President Donald Trump heralds this as great news for the US economy, energy security, the fossil fuel industry and the people who work in it, like the coal miners he welcomed to the White House earlier this month after signing an executive order requiring the Department of War (it pains me to write that) to use more coal power. The truth is that it is none of those things. Trump’s war on clean energy is going to make America sicker and poorer.
Let’s start with the fact that the administration’s sabotage of existing federal tax credits for electric vehicles, clawbacks of already funded grants and loans for clean energy projects, and cuts to federal fuel efficiency mandates are costing Detroit $50bn. That’s the amount of writedowns being taken by the Big Three automakers — GM, Ford and Stellantis — since they are now being disincentivised to move into EVs.