‘Green News Report’ – January 21, 2025

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Donald Trump at his Inauguration pledges to reverse U.S. climate and pollution policies, quickly signs Executive Orders to do so; Americans coast to coast grapple with climate-intensified extreme weather disasters; PLUS: Trump announces withdrawal of U.S. from Paris Climate Agreement, again… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Fact-checking President Trump’s 2025 inaugural address; Trump Targeted Scientists in His First Term. This Time, They’re Prepared; EPA Staff Directory Reveals Trump Appointees; Moss Landing, The World’s Biggest Grid Battery, Just Caught Fire Again… PLUS: Storm-Hit Town Voted For Trump, Who Vowed To Overturn Law To Fix Its Homes… and much, MUCH more! …

STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…

• More than 200 million Americans grapple with dangerous Polar Vortex::
• A Rare Winter Storm Is Bringing Heavy Snow, Sleet And Ice To Texas And The Northern Gulf Coast (AP)
• VIDEO: From Texas to Florida, rare winter storm brings dangerous cold and snow to parts of the South (CBS News)
• Why more frequent cold blasts could be coming from global warming (AP)
• Snow begins to blanket New Orleans, from the French Quarter to the northshore (NOLA)
• Another Polar Vortex Is Blasting the U.S. With Harsh Winter Weather. So How Is Climate Change Involved?
• Southern California grapples with extreme fire weather again:
• Dangerous Winds Return To Southern California As New Wildfires Break Out (AP)
• At least 2 new fires break out in Southern California as winds pick up (AP)
• Fire crews in Southern California quickly extinguish brush fires amid extreme fire weather (AP)
• VIDEO: Trump insults L.A. firefighters (Rev Transcripts)
• Fire weather: How extreme wildfires became the rule – not the exception (UK Telegraph)
• The 2025 Los Angeles wildfires and the role of climate change (Carbon Brief)
• Trump signs blitz of executive actions:
• Trump signs slew of sweeping energy executive orders (Axios)
• Trump declares national energy emergency, orders U.S. to withdraw from Paris climate agreement (CNBC/MSN)
• Trump plans to declare a ‘national energy emergency.’ What does that mean? (NPR):
  Declaring a “national energy emergency” would be a presidential first, and it’s unclear what exactly it would entail…Declaring a national emergency gives the president some additional executive powers. According to the Brennan Center, which has researched emergency powers, statutes grant the president the authority to suspend some environmental regulations or impose restrictions on crude oil exports.
• Ruth Ben-Ghiat: “Energy is not the priority- the plunder of the environment is the priority” (Bluesky)
• Trump signs executive order to boost development of Alaska’s ‘extraordinary’ natural resources (Anchorage Daily News)
• Declaring a National Energy Emergency (Trump White House)
• Unleashing Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential (Trump White House)
• Initial rescissions of harmful executive orders and actions (Trump White House)
• Trump moves to strangle U.S. offshore wind industry, jobs:
• Trump temporarily halts leasing and permitting for wind energy projects (AP):
  It’s unclear how much authority he has to stop wind projects, particularly those that have their federal permits. His order will likely be challenged in court…[A] first step toward an eventual moratorium on offshore wind development.
• Trump signals end to new US wind power leasing (Reuters)
• Trump moves to halt offshore wind projects, throwing possible wrench in Maine’s energy plans (Maine Morning Star)
• Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects (Trump White House)
• VIDEO: Trump denigrates U.S. wind energy industry (Rev Transcripts)
• Trump pledges to undo tailipipe pollution standards, EV incentives:
• Trump signs executive order to reverse Biden’s electric vehicle policies (The Verge):
  He also signaled his intention to roll back tailpipe emission standards, which will worsen greenhouse gas emissions.
• Trump revokes Biden 50% EV target, freezes unspent charging funds (Reuters)
• Trump plans to declare a ‘national energy emergency.’ What does that mean? (NPR):
  But the EV policies that most outrage Trump and other Republicans — like major tax credits for consumers and manufacturers, stringent federal emissions standards and state-level EV mandates — cannot be undone by the stroke of a pen, and require months-long regulatory actions, legislation from Congress or intervention from the Supreme Court.
• Trump withdraws from the Paris Agreement — again:
• Trump is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement (again), reversing U.S. climate policy (NPR):
  Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and an architect of the Paris Agreement, said in a statement that the U.S. pulling out of the deal is unfortunate. But, she said, international climate action “has proven resilient and is stronger than any single country’s politics and policies.” “This moment should serve as a wake-up call to reform the system, ensuring that those most affected – communities and individuals on the front lines – are at the center of our collective governance,” Tubiana said.
• Donald Trump pulls US out of Paris climate agreement for the second time (The Verge)
• VIDEO: Trump signs order on withdrawing U.S. from the Paris climate agreement again (CBS News)
• Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements (Trump White House)
• Here’s what the Paris climate agreement does and doesn’t do (AP)

‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…

For a comprehensive roundup of daily environmental news you can trust, see the Society of Environmental Journalists’ Daily Headlines page

• Fact-checking President Trump’s 2025 inaugural address (Washington Post/MSN)
• Trump Targeted Scientists in His First Term. This Time, They’re Prepared. (NY Times)
• EPA Staff Directory Reveals Trump Appointees (E&E News)
• Storm-Hit Town Voted For Trump, Who Vowed To Overturn Law To Fix Its Homes (Pro Publica)
• LA Wildfires: The Incarcerated Firefighters Battling Blazes (Thompson Reuters Foundation)
• Moss Landing, The World’s Biggest Grid Battery, Just Caught Fire Again (Canary Media)
• Can we avoid the enshittification of clean-energy tech? (David Roberts, Volts)
• Stop emissions, stop warming: A climate reality check (Dr. Andrew Dessler, Climate Brink)
• The Climate Fight Will Continue (This Is Not Cool blog)
• Who Will Care for Americans Left Behind by Climate Migration? (Pro Publica)
• Is the Atlantic Overturning Circulation Approaching a Tipping Point? (The Oceanography Society)
• How Oil Companies Manipulate Journalists (Drilled)
• Abrupt reduction in shipping emission as an inadvertent geoengineering termination shock produces substantial radiative warming (Nature)
• How To Spot 5 Of The Fossil Fuel Industry’s Biggest Disinformation Tactics (Guardian)
• The Oceans We Knew Are Already Gone (The Atlantic)
• Plug-in hybrids vs. electric cars: We did the math on which is better for you (Washington Post)
• How to electrify your life when you rent (The Verge)
• Complete Series: Farmers Under Attack for Supporting Clean Energy (This Is Not Cool blog)
• Feeling Overwhelmed About Going All-Electric at Home? Here’s How to Get Started (Inside Climate News)
• Feeling Hopeless About the Climate? Try Our 30-Day Action Plan (The Revelator)
• Climate Change Will Force a New American Migration (Pro Publica)
• Exxon’s Snake Oil: 100 years of deception (Columbia Journalism Review)
• Project Drawdown: 100 Solutions to Reverse Global Warming (Drawdown.org)