SUN DAY Campaign: News Story Headlines/Excerpts re. Trump Administration Impacts on Energy & Climate (July 19, 2025)
SUN DAY CAMPAIGN
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July 19, 2025
To: Recipients
From: Ken Bossong, editor
Re. News Story Excerpts (re. Trump Administration Impacts on Energy & Climate)
Note: News story headlines provided below do not necessarily reflect the views of the SUN DAY Campaign or any of its respective members.
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DOGE Told Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ‘Rubber Stamp’ Nuclear:
E&E News, by Francisco "A.J." Camacho & Peter Behr, July 14, 2025
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s historic role of assuring safety is changing as the White House shifts some responsibility to the Department of Energy. A DOGE representative told the chair and top staff of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the agency will be expected to give “rubber stamp” approval to new reactors tested by the departments of Energy or Defense. The meeting was held after President Donald Trump signed a May 23 executive order that would supplant the NRC’s historical role as the sole agency responsible for ensuring commercial nuclear projects are safe and won’t threaten public health.
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Trump Administration Says It Won't Publish Major Climate Change Report on NASA Website as Promised:
Associated Press, by Seth Borenstein, July 14, 2025
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The Trump administration has taken another step to make it harder to find major, legally mandated scientific assessments of how climate change is endangering the nation and its people. Earlier this month, the official government websites that hosted the authoritative, peer-reviewed national climate assessments went dark. Such sites tell state and local governments and the public what to expect in their backyards from a warming world and how best to adapt to it. The most recent report, issued in 2023, found that climate change is affecting people’s security, health and livelihoods in every corner of the country in different ways, with minority communities, particularly Native Americans, often disproportionately at risk. Earlier, the White House said NASA would house the reports to comply with a 1990 law that requires the reports, which the space agency said it planned to do. But NASA has now aborted those plans.
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House Releases Interior-EPA Spending Bill with Deep Cuts:
E&E News, by Kevin Bogardus, Garrett Downs & Michael Doyle, July 14, 2025
House Republican appropriators unveiled their fiscal 2026 funding legislation for the Interior Department and EPA, with steep cuts proposed for both agencies. The bill would approve about $38 billion for agencies under its purview, nearly $3 billion below the fiscal 2025 amount. Interior would get about $14.8 billion and EPA would be funded at $7 billion, a 23 percent cut for the agency. The legislation is, however, more generous than Trump’s budget request. The bill would appropriate about $9.2 billion above what the White House requested.
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House Republicans Buck Trump a Bit on NOAA Cuts but Savage NSF Funding:
E&E News, by Daniel Cusick, July 14, 2025
https://www.eenews.net/
Under the Commerce-Justice-Science bill, House Republican appropriators would cut NOAA by nearly $400 million for fiscal 2026 - amounting to a six percent cut from current levels. Republicans say the bill includes “reducing spending on reckless climate change efforts.” The National Science Foundation, however, would see a steep reduction in new spending legislation - a 23 percent cut of $2 billion.
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U.S. Threatens to Abandon the International Energy Agency Over Its Green-Leaning Energy Forecasts:
Bloomberg News, by Ari Natter, July 15, 2025
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The U.S. may depart the IEA without changes to forecasting that Republicans have criticized as unrealistically green. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said, “We will do one of two things: we will reform the way the IEA operates or we will withdraw.” Wright’s criticism of the agency that gets millions of dollars in U.S. funding is in line with Trump’s broader pro-fossil fuels thrust, and his skepticism about climate change and some environmental measures adopted under previous administrations.
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The IRA Was Bearing Fruit. Then Trump Killed It:
E&E News, by Benjamin Storrow, July 16, 2025
The first half of 2025 showed the promise of the giant climate law passed under Biden. Solar power generation surged in the first half of 2025, a growing number of batteries were connected to the grid, and electric vehicles sales hit new records. Those clean energy trends are now expected to dim. EIA estimates that solar installations would fall from 36-GW in 2027 to about 18-GW in 2028, and less than 5-GW in 2029. Wind projects, which were already struggling with transmission constraints and growing opposition, are in tougher shape. Onshore wind installations are expected to fall from 8-GW in 2026 to 3-GW in 2027, and a little more than 2-GW in 2028. Cox Automotive initially projected EVs would account for 10 percent of new sales this year, but it downgraded that estimate to 8.5 percent after the Republican law was finalized.
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Trump’s Push to Keep Coal Plants Running Could Cost Consumers Billions:
Canary Media, by Jeff St. John, July 16, 2025
DOE’s emergency orders to keep coal plants running could cost U.S. utility customers billions, and states are pushing back. 100+ planned closures could be blocked before Trump’s term ends. RMI says these orders could drive up U.S. power costs by roughly $15 billion annually by propping up aging fossil fuel plants. State regulators warn that reversing closures at the last minute - like what happened at Michigan’s J.H. Campbell plant in May - adds tens of millions in unexpected costs, undermines clean energy plans, and destabilizes long-term grid strategy.
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Trump's Trillion Dollar Spending Boost for Pentagon to Create Disastrous Amount of Carbon Emissions:
Latin Times, by Maryam Khanum, July 17, 2025
According to new analysis by the Climate and Community Institute, a US-based research thinktank, Trump’s huge spending boost for the Pentagon will produce an additional 26 megatons (Mt) of planet-heating gases – on a par with the annual carbon equivalent (CO2e) emissions generated by 68 gas power plants or the entire country of Croatia. The Pentagon’s 2026 budget – and climate footprint – is set to surge to $1 trillion thanks to the president’s One Big Beautiful Act, a 17% rise on last year. The budget bonanza will push the Pentagon’s total greenhouse emissions to a staggering 178 Mt of CO2e, resulting in an estimated $47 billion in economic damages globally.
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Trump Administration Memo Could Strike Fatal Blow with Strict Reviews for Solar and Wind Projects on Federal Lands:
Washington Examiner, by Callie Patteson, July 17, 2025
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The Trump administration is taking new steps to stifle wind and solar energy development, requiring projects to get Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s personal signature to receive necessary permits. An internal memo sent to Interior Department staff said all wind and solar power facilities on Interior Department-controlled land must undergo strict political reviews from the secretary. This includes all decisions, actions, consultations, and other activities related to renewable energy projects
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Trump Taps Project 2025 Contributor David LaCerte to Fill Vacant FERC Seat:
UtilityDive.com, by Ethan Howland, July 17, 2025
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LaCerte, who now works at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, served during Trump’s first term and helped on Project 2025, the conservative road map to “deconstruct the Administrative State.” LaCerte was a special counsel at the Baker Botts law firm for two years, starting in January 2023. While there, he worked on energy litigation and environmental, safety and incident response issues. If confirmed, FERC would have a 3-2 Republican majority. It is currently split 2-2 between Republicans and Democrats.
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Trump’s Rural Energy Freeze Hits the Midwest and GOP Districts Hardest:
Canary Media, by Kari Lydersen, July 17, 2025
Since 2014, the Rural Energy for America Program has provided more than $1.2 billion for more than 13,000 solar projects, making up about 70% of the total REAP dollars. More than $292 million went to energy efficiency, including for windows, lighting, heating, and efficient grain driers. Millions more were awarded for biogas, biomass, biofuels, wind energy, hydroelectric power, and other projects. More than three-quarters of REAP federal grants over the last decade have gone to Republican congressional districts. Ongoing delays and disruptions to a federal rural energy program threaten to disproportionately impact Midwest farmers and Republican congressional districts.
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Trump Gives More Passes to Big Polluters:
Sierra Club, July 18, 2025
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Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency has exempted more big polluters from lifesaving EPA guardrails. The agency exempted 53 plants from standards that curb emissions of ethylene oxide, chloroprene and other toxic gases, eight taconite processing facilities that prepare iron-bearing rock for steelmaking from the first-of-its-kind standard to limit mercury emissions, and exempted three more coal plants from Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. In April, Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin exempted 68 coal-fired power plants from MATS, allowing these massive polluting plants to release even more toxic chemicals into the air.
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