What can we expect from the Trump administration? Our journalists are paying attention.

Tuesday’s presidential election dramatically changed how the federal government will or will not deal with climate change and other environmental issues. President-elect Donald Trump has in the past called climate change a hoax and downplayed the serious nature of global warming. Now he succeeds President Joe Biden, who has spent much of the past four years trying to solve the problem.

Cara Holsopple spoke with The Allegheny Front’s Julie Grant and Reid Fraser to get their insights.

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If you want to learn more about the environmental rollback during the first Trump administration and how the agencies were staffed with industry insiders. We did a four-year, 100-episode Trump on Earth podcast.

LISTEN to the interview

Cara Holsople: So how has climate change and the environment affected this race from your perspective?

Reid Fraser: Well, from my point of view, it’s not. Democrats avoided talking about it. A big issue facing Vice President Harris in this election, at least one of them, was inflation and the high cost of things for Americans.

And while Americans are largely concerned about climate change and want the government to do more to combat it, voters clearly felt that the cost of everyday things was the most important issue in this election, rather than the issue of climate change — that just wouldn’t work.

Julie Grant: Harris had a good story on climate change and the actions of the current administration, but her campaign didn’t seem to think it was smart. It seemed like they were really just trying to position themselves more in the middle so that people wouldn’t see her as a radical leftist, green candidate.

And as we just heard from some of the voters we spoke to on Tuesday, they had no idea where she stood on climate change and the environment.

Kara Holsopple: Biden has started the transition to a clean energy economy in many ways. What did he do?

Reid Fraser: He did a lot.

Julie Grant: This administration passed landmark climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act. They also got a bipartisan infrastructure bill. And these brought something similar $5.6 billion to Pennsylvania for hundreds of projects planting treesstorm water improvement, flood mitigation, cleaning of abandoned mine lands, dripping of oil and gas wellsall kinds of things

Reid Fraser: So the initial amount for all these climate investments in the Inflation Reduction Act was $390 billion over ten years. But since some of that money is basically unlimited tax credits, the latest estimates put the number closer to $790 billion. And we have to say that over half, about 60% of all, the IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act, the clean energy projects went to Republican constituencies.

So, in addition to all these IRA funds and bipartisan infrastructure bill projects, the Biden administration has gone back to work on regulating greenhouse gas emissions and emissions of other pollutants through the regulatory process.

Julie Grant: They finished new tailpipe emissions for vehicles as well as regulations of power plants regarding carbon dioxide pollution.

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Cara Holsople: So now we’re looking at a second Trump administration. Can he just undo it all?

Reid Fraser: Well, not all of it, at least not right away. A lot of the money that went into things like renewable energy, electric cars and other projects went down the street.

But there will almost certainly be a turn back to the world of fossil fuels. And I was listening to a conversation with Scott Segal (this week). He works with Bracewell, a lobbying firm in Washington, DC. And he predicts Trump’s aggressive push to get back to fossil fuels. And here is Scott Segal.

Scott Segal: And what that actually means is probably waiting for an immediate series of executive orders to speed up drilling permits on federal lands, an attempt to speed up pipeline approvals, including previously rejected projects, possibly expanding offshore (oil) drilling programs.

Reid Fraser: And we could observe another exit from Paris Climate Agreement and bringing fossil fuel industry lobbyists and others close to the industry back into the administration. For example, one of the main leaders of the Department of Energy is the former governor of North Dakota, Doug Burgum. This is obviously a huge oil and gas state, and Burgum is expected to promote the industry at the Department of Energy.

On the subject of renewable energy. Let’s see what Trump will do. It’s hard to predict what will happen, but there will almost certainly be less focus on renewables and clean energy, and there will likely be almost no discussion of what to do about climate change, even if the world is well behind what scientists say we need needs to be done to fulfill the promise of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Julie Grant: And remember, during the campaign, all the talk about Project 2025, that controversial plan developed by the Heritage Foundation? Well, the non-profit group FracTracker Alliance looked at this plan through an ecological prism.

What they expect is an administration bent on promoting fossil fuel interests and ousting career agency experts. They expect political appointees in these positions, those who are going to advance the administration’s political agenda and fossil fuel agenda.

During his first reign Trump has repealed more than 125 environmental regulationsspecifically the air pollution that affects us here in Pittsburgh and water quality.

The The Biden administration has canceled or rolled back many of thembut we can expect even more deregulation of environmental and health regulations that affect people’s daily lives.

Cara Holsople: Julie, you’ve been part of the conversation among environmental groups about what’s next for the environmental movement. What did you hear?

Julie Grant: Well, of course they all expressed disappointment. There were people from the Environmental Defense Fund and the Climate Power group.

Ben Geloz, who is the executive director of the Sierra Club, said they are preparing as environmental watchdogs to fight the Trump administration in court. like the first time. He said they had already seen this movie.

Ben Jaylos: We found a way to continue progress under the first Trump administration last time, and we will find ways to make progress with him in office now.

Julie Grant: So, Jealous said the Sierra Club is really training its legal team. They prepare their Freedom of Information Act requests and their enforcement team to make sure they know what’s going on and that the environmental community can monitor and fight as needed to protect the environment and public health.

Cara Holsople: Okay, so get your crystal balls. What do you think we will be reporting on for the next four years?

Reid Fraser: Well Kara, it’s going to be a wild ride. We know that, as we saw last time. I’m interested to see what happens with renewable energy. Do you know if Trump and the Republicans should go in favor of some of the subsidies that renewable energy has enjoyed over the last few years?

Besides, hydrogen industry. It’s going to be very exciting because you have buy-in from the oil and gas industry, which could potentially get a lot of rewards from the Inflation Reduction Act credits and so on.

Also, what will happen to air pollution regulations like PM 2.5? These are tiny tiny particles. This is a very important health standard, especially in places like Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, where air quality is generally worse than average.

Julie Grant: one thing I’m really going to look at the automotive industry. The Biden administration, as we mentioned earlier, created regulations on tailpipe emissions and, along with subsidies for the American manufacturing industry, began to attract American automakers to the production of electric vehicles.

In addition, billions of dollars are pouring into Pennsylvania alone to build charging infrastructure — $19 billion, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, to build additional charging stations. Only three have been built so far, but there will be 90 more by next spring.

So, are (electric cars) far enough along that what the government does doesn’t matter anymore? Or will the political climate, where people think that buying an electric car is tied to their political position, be stronger and the auto industry will react to that and sort of abandon electric cars for good? So I think it will be interesting to see.

Cara Holsople: And I’m going to watch protection of endangered species and all kinds of other questions. Looks like we’re ready. Thank you both for talking to me about this.

Julie Grant: Good, good to meet you both. Thank you

Reid Fraser: Thank you, Kara.