On Thursday, the Trump Administration revoked the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) pivotal 2009 endangerment finding, eliminating the legal basis that empowers the government to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. This marks the administration’s most significant climate policy reversal to date—though it is far from the only anti-climate action taken by President Donald Trump and Republican officials in recent days. 

During a White House event on Wednesday, February 12, Trump revealed he had directed the Pentagon to increase its procurement of coal-generated electricity, and that the Department of Energy would allocate $175 million in funding for six projects aimed at modernizing coal plants across four states. 

This announcement carries a cost. Among all fossil fuels, coal emits the highest amount of carbon dioxide per unit of energy, and its combustion releases harmful pollutants into the atmosphere. Research from an energy consulting group has also indicated that the Trump Administration’s efforts to keep coal plants operational could cost U.S. utility customers between $3 billion and $6 billion by the end of 2028. This is due to coal being one of the most expensive energy sources; in the U.S., coal plants are more costly to operate than replacing them with wind or solar would be. 

“Americans and businesses nationwide are grappling with sharply rising electricity costs,” Julie McNamara, associate policy director of the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, stated in a statement following Trump’s Wednesday decision. “The nation has tangible solutions available—yet rather than advancing investments in the quickest, most affordable, and cleanest available resources, the Trump Administration is actively working to halt the deployment of new solar and wind projects, block investments in energy efficiency, and impede the development of modern grid infrastructure.”

In another recent blow to environmental safeguards, the Federal Judicial Center removed a chapter on climate change from a judicial reference manual last Friday. This action followed pressure from Republican state attorneys general, with more than 20 of them writing to the House and Senate judiciary committees to argue that the manual represented an “inappropriate effort to manipulate case outcomes in favor of one party.” The guide is widely utilized and cited by legal clerks and judges when addressing critical scientific questions in their rulings. It also includes chapters on other topics such as artificial intelligence, DNA identification, and epidemiology. 

On the same day, February 6, President Trump signed a proclamation permitting commercial fishing in the Atlantic Ocean’s sole marine national monument—a 4,000-square-mile area inhabited by dolphins, endangered whales, sea turtles, and ancient deep-sea corals. “I determine that properly managed commercial fishing would not threaten the historic and scientific objects protected by the monument,” he stated in the proclamation. 

Nonetheless, environmentalists argue that commercial fishing will disrupt the ecosystem. 

“The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts area is an extraordinarily unique location: a living scientific laboratory and a sanctuary for diverse species ranging from cold-water corals to sperm whales,” Brad Sewell, managing director of oceans at the Natural Resources Defense Council, noted in a statement. “Trump’s action to undo these protections is illegal, and we are confident it will not hold.”

Since assuming office last year, President Trump—who has labeled climate change a “hoax” and a “con job”—has swiftly reversed numerous climate policies. Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law’s “Tracker” has documented over 300 attempts by the administration to reduce or eliminate federal climate mitigation and adaptation measures, spanning from the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement to opening millions of acres of national forests for road construction and development. 

Despite legal challenges to many of these efforts, the administration shows no indication of altering course. On Wednesday, Trump was presented with an award by the Washington Coal Club lobby group, shaped like a miner and inscribed with the phrase “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal.” 

McNamara, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, remarked, “The art of the deal: a trophy for President Trump, real costs for real people.”