20 January 2021
President-elect Joe Biden will on Wednesday order a government-wide review of over 100 Trump-era policies and direct agencies to prepare a suite of emissions and energy efficiency rules.
Why it matters: New information from transition officials offers the full scope of Biden's imminent, inauguration-day burst of environmental and energy policy moves.
- They'll begin what will be a years-long, politically and legally fraught process to both reverse Trump's policies and implement Biden's own agenda.
What's new per Biden's team: An executive order coming Wednesday will include:
- Ordering "all" departments and agencies to "take appropriate action" against all Trump-era rules and policies that Biden officials deem harmful to public health or the environment.
- Telling agencies to begin weighing tougher methane emissions rules, vehicle CO2 emissions and mileage standards, and appliance and building efficiency standards.
- Reviving an interagency working group on the "social cost" of greenhouse gas emissions and direct issuance of an "interim" cost. (The social cost is a metric that regulators use to assess the monetary impact of emissions increases.)
- Reviewing Trump-era decisions that reduced the size of protected areas including Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments.
- Biden's orders also direct agencies to review and revise policies that are "counter to his commitment to environmental justice," a transition summary notes, referring to the greater pollution burdens often faced by the poor and communities of color.
Catch up quick: These steps come on top of previously reported inauguration day plans to rejoin the Paris climate deal and yank the Keystone XL pipeline permit.
How it works: Biden officials released a separate list of over 100 Trump-era policies that the incoming administration plans to review and upend, including...
- EPA decisions on fine particulate and ozone pollution, the scope of the Clean Water Act, carbon emissions from power plants and more.
- Energy Department efficiency standards and policies for buildings, dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers, electric motors and more.
- Interior Department rules in areas like migratory bird protections and offshore drilling safety, to name a couple.
What we don't know: Biden's exact strategy for thwarting development in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which was opened to oil-and-gas leasing under a GOP-crafted law in 2017.
The imminent order will place a "temporary moratorium" on leasing activities, per the summary from the transition team.
Reality check: Much of this simply begins long administrative processes.
As we pointed out Tuesday, some executive orders and directives have instant impacts. But often they're akin to firing a starting gun that directs agencies to begin what's a time-consuming, often litigated bureaucratic process to make real and lasting policy changes.
The intrigue: Other parts of the administration's climate plans are emerging. Janet Yellen, the nominee for Treasury secretary, told a Senate panel she would appoint a senior-level Treasury official to oversee efforts related to climate change.
- She noted the need for a focus on climate change's risks to the financial system.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.