US Climate Policy Under Trump Administration

This assignment examines the effects of the Trump administration's policies on US climate change initiatives. It delves into the rollback of Obama-era regulations on fossil fuels and the promotion of coal industries. Additionally, it explores the administration's stance on renewable energy sources like solar and wind power and its impact on the future of US climate policy.

Running head: GLOBAL ENERGY
Global Energy
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note

1GLOBAL ENERGY
Renewable energy is the energy that is collected from the renewable and naturally
replenished sources such as sunlight, wind, rain, waves, tides and geothermal heat. It is
responsible for providing energy in the four significant areas of electricity production, heating or
cooling of air and water, transportation and rural energy services. It is the fastest growing source
of energy in the US which has increased to 67% in 16 years. It makes up to 15% of the total US
electricity production with a large portion coming from the hydropower and wind power. In the
international level, the renewable energy makes up to 24% of electricity generation with a large
part from hydropower. It was observed by IEA or International Energy Agency that the
development as well as exploitation of the renewable energy technologies is totally dependent on
government policies for making it cost- effective. The record from last year focused on the
consumption of 10% energy in all the sectors of USA (Bilgen 2014).
The threat of climate change is addressed with a global concern by the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change with a long term objective to prevent the harmful substances
from interfering with the climate system. With the adaptation to climate change the effects would
include appropriate action for minimizing the damage that can lead to the exploitation of
opportunities (Cole 2015). Adaptation of climate change policies can affect the economic sectors
and also indulge a number of levels of decision- making. A large amount of subsidy was paid by
the federal government for fossil fuels to renewable in six years from 2002- 08.
In March 2017, the new president of the United States Donald Trump signed an order
which modified the climate change regulations of Obama government. This had made a
determined effort to provide support to the coal industry which had put a question mark on the
support of US for a worldwide agreement to battle global warming. The aim of the order was
former President Obama’s Clean Power Plan which called for a reduction in carbon emission

2GLOBAL ENERGY
from the factories (Davenport 2014). This was considered as the main factor in US’s ability to
cope up with the commitments of climate change pact reached by around 200 nations in Paris in
the year 2015. The verdict of Trump had also turned around the ban on the coal lease of the
federal lands which undid the rule of reducing the emission of methane from oil and gas
production thus decreasing the burden of climate change and the carbon emission in the norms
and infrastructure concerned with decision (Hayes and Knox-Hayes 2014). The decision taken
by Trump received loud applause from the miners, executives of Coal Company and staffs from
the industry groups thus increasing the response of US Coal Company’s shares. This large range
of orders is the strongest step taken by Trump for tailor cutting the environmental regulation for
refreshing the drilling and mining industries as per his promise in the presidential campaign of
2016. The Clean Power Plan of the Obama government had set attainable standards for
decreasing the emission of CO2 by 32% in 25 years from 2005 to 2030. The plan had a number
of criteria for protecting the health of American family and save the average American family
thus boosting the economy of the country (Hopkinson et al. 2017). The average annual
temperature of the world had increased by more than 1.5 degree Fahrenheit in a gap of 132 years.
It is recommended by the scientists that by avoiding 2 degree increase in temperature the most
disastrous impact can be prevented.
The Obama government had created stronger fuel economy standards which will increase
the efficiency value by 2025. With the increase in clean energy the country had increased the
solar energy production by 20 times and thrice the generation from wind power. In the year
2012, the greenhouse gas pollution was decreased to the minimum level in approximately 20
years. 35 states of the country have renewable energy targets and more than 25 states have set the
target for energy efficiency (Long 2016). This much was not enough for the Obama government

3GLOBAL ENERGY
and they still had to do much more decreasing carbon pollution from the power plants. Since the
President took charge of his office, large investment was made in the history of American clean
energy. Furthermore, this specific plan will result in 30% more renewable energy production by
2030. From 2009, it was permitted that there will be 50 clean energy utility scale projects in the
public and tribal lands. This project was responsible for supporting more than 20000 jobs to
produce sufficient electricity that can be provided to 4.8 million homes. An initiative was
launched by the administration which was named as Solar Ready Veta to provide training for the
amendment of veterans to make entry into the solar workforce. This would help in the attainment
of the organizational goal to provide training to approximately 75000 people for making entry in
the workforce by 2020 (Nejat et al. 2015).
President Ronald Reagan has played a major role in negotiating the Montreal Protocol
followed by President George H. W. Bush who remarked that there is reflective effect on the
world’s environmental and economic policy. William Clinton, the 42nd President had
longstanding commitment to the environment with the development of measurable projects and
the Bush administration had announced that it would reject the Kyoto Protocol of reducing
greenhouse gas emission by stating that it would create economic setbacks in the US. The
immediate former President had introduced an increased access to solar energy for the lower and
middle income group for building a properly inclusive workforce. The progress of the plan was
noteworthy in terms of sustainability. The initiation in wind and solar energy enabled to secure
more than 4 billion dollar in the private sector commitment which showed a new energy policy
framework. The actions were also scaled up to for the modification in clean energy and
utilization of technologies that decrease carbon pollution. In the year 2015, the Former President
of USA had made a worldwide effort for settling the Paris Climate Agreement in which the

4GLOBAL ENERGY
nations had given their consent to decrease carbon emission by increasing the trade of carbon.
The members of the agreement had taken the decision to put a restriction on global warming to 2
degree Celsius above the industrial temperature. The developed nations of the word had decided
to donate $100 billion each year for providing assistance to the upcoming markets in relation to
the impact of different elements of energy sources. Whereas, a number of developing countries
had bore the impact of damage as a result of climate modify, facing storm, increasing sea levels
and famine (Ward 2016).
In the current year, the new President of US, Donald Trump had proclaimed that US
should leave the Paris Climate Agreement along with a commitment of removing the Climate
Action Plan and the Waters of the US rule. An order was signed by him to give concern for the
construction of the Keystone XL and the Dakota Access pipelines. It was decided that they
would ship high- level crude oil of Canada to the Gulf area refineries. He took the pledge of
renewing the coal industry and at the same time promised to abide by the clean coal technology
for a sustainable environment. He had again signed an order that balanced or repealed for
reviewing a number of precautions taken in by the Obama government to address climate
change. He overturned the orders to tackle the gap between change and defense in climate. The
review was instigated of the previous government Clean Power Plan due to the coal industry
regulations and policies (Trancik 2016).
The present government plan to revoke a landmark power plant rule is one among the
many steps that the administration has taken to help in the maintenance of the fossil fuels for a
sustainable planet to live in. Trump government is razing the former president’s climate
inheritance with numerous strategies to help the fossil fuel industry and at the same time putting
penalty on the producers of solar and wind energy. The contemporary government has also

5GLOBAL ENERGY
followed certain steps to support the dominant rule of coal in the electricity market and thus
securing it from the increasing competition of cleaner sources such as natural gas and wind. The
interior department of Trump is releasing to Obama’s restrictions on fossil fuel generation on the
central lands and thus forcefully compressing the lease on the wind and solar power projects. The
Trump supporters have found the steps beneficial for protecting jobs but the opponents protested
saying that it is responsible for putting the future of earth at stake (Davenport 2015).
The war about the future of the US climate policy is still undergoing amendment. The
new president has ordered his ministers to destroy the large collection of the Obama government
policies regarding global warming which involved the emission policies of power plants,
restriction on methane leaks, suspension on the lease of national coal and the utilization of public
cost of carbon for guiding government proceedings. The order of Trump do not put a barrier on
the Environment Protection Agency’s basic power to control greenhouse gases through
endangerment finding which was used by Obama to create the climate policies when the
previous attempts were not successful in passing the legislation. There are several factors in the
order of Trump such as rollick back of the Clean Power Plan, reviewing the carbon standards for
new coal industries along with methane emission from the oil and gas industries, reviving the
societal cost of carbon to put justification on the climate norms and removing the halt on federal
leasing of coal, thus cancelling a number of executive orders on climate which was signed by the
former US President Barack Obama.

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Reference
Bilgen, S., 2014. Structure and environmental impact of global energy consumption. Renewable
and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 38, pp.890-902.
Cole, D.H., 2015. Advantages of a polycentric approach to climate change policy. Nature
Climate Change, 5(2), pp.114-118.
Davenport, C., 2014. Obama Pursuing Climate Accord in Lieu of Treaty. The New York
Times, 26.
Davenport, C., 2015. Nations approve landmark climate accord in Paris. New York Times, 12.
Hayes, J. and Knox-Hayes, J., 2014. Security in climate change discourse: analyzing the
divergence between US and EU approaches to policy. Global Environmental Politics, 14(2),
pp.82-101.
Hopkinson, N.S., Hart, N., Jenkins, G., Kaminski, N., Rosenfeld, M., Smyth, A. and Wilkinson,
A., 2017. Climate change and lung health: the challenge for a new president.
Long, J.C., 2016. Trump: keep climate plans to boost jobs. Nature, 539(7630), pp.495-495.
Nejat, P., Jomehzadeh, F., Taheri, M.M., Gohari, M. and Majid, M.Z.A., 2015. A global review
of energy consumption, CO 2 emissions and policy in the residential sector (with an overview of
the top ten CO 2 emitting countries). Renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 43, pp.843-862.
Trancik, J., 2016. Trump: unlikely to deter clean energy. Nature, 539(7630), pp.495-495.
Ward, B., 2016. What energy and climate change policies can we expect from President
Trump?. LSE Business Review.