Series Finale
Trump on Earth
When he first ran for President, Donald Trump was called the “chaos candidate”. And to bitter end, that has been borne out. But another kind of radical change has happened over the last four years, often out of the headlines. So, for our last episode, we take stock of the past four years.
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"Sound science is not leading the decisions made by this nation."
Trump on Earth
There have been a number of changes in how the EPA, under President Trump, uses science. It has come with much criticism, including from former EPA officials. On this episode, we hear from a veteran EPA scientist on what drove him to leave the Trump Administration. Chris Zarba worked at the EPA for close to four decades. He was an official in the administrator's office of the agency and also directed the Agency’s Science Advisory Board Staff Office.
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Trump’s Last Act: Drilling in the Arctic Refuge
Trump on Earth
The outgoing president has a few things he’d like to take care of before January 20. Among them is selling off parcels of land in the Alaskan wilderness to oil companies. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is 20 million acres of mountains, tundra & coastlands. Underneath it, there are billions of barrels of oil. Similar plans have sparked fights for decades, so why the Trump administration push to drill there now? Our guest is Tegan Hanlon, a public radio reporter for Alaska’s Energy Desk in Anchorag
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What does Biden's win mean for the environment and the fight to rein in climate change?
Trump on Earth
Biden ran as a moderate Democrat, but he also campaigned on an aggressive climate platform. How much of that agenda he can pursue could rest on who controls the US Senate. We unpack what's coming next with Jody Freeman, director of the Environmental and Energy Law Program at Harvard Law School. Freeman worked in the Obama White House as counselor for climate and energy where she was the architect of the fuel-efficiency regulations for cars, which were later rolled back under President Trump.
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How the Environment is Playing in Swing States
Trump on Earth
On this episode, we're looking at what role climate change and other environmental issues could play in deciding the election. We check in with reporters in three major battleground states--Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida--to find out.
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Will 2020 be the Year of the Climate Voter?
Trump on Earth
As Election Day nears, a majority of registered voters say climate change will be an important issue in making their choice for president. But a surprising number of people who say they care about environmental issues don’t actually cast ballots. That’s where the Environmental Voter Project comes in. For the past four years, the nonpartisan organization has been building what they call an army of environmental super voters. Will they turn out?
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Trump vs the Courts
Trump on Earth
Many of President Trump's environmental actions have faced court challenges. So how’s the administration doing? First we hear from Ann Carlson, professor of environmental law at UCLA about a climate change case just added to the Supreme Court docket. And then we take a look at how the Trump administration has been faring in court with Michael Gerrard, professor of environmental and climate law at Columbia University.
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Losing RBG
Trump on Earth
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a feminist icon in the U.S., as one of the first women in many of the roles and rooms she found herself in over her life. Her death and the subsequent race by the Trump administration to confirm her successor will remake American law for decades, most notably by putting Roe versus Wade in jeopardy. But it could also remake environmental law.
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Labor Unions and Environmentalists Join Forces to Defeat Trump
Trump on Earth
Trump calls himself a "great environmentalist” while gutting environmental protections and questioning the science around climate change.
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Why the Trump Administration is Rolling Back a Climate Rule that Big Oil Actually Likes
Trump on Earth
Trump's EPA recently announced that it was rolling back yet another big Obama-era climate rule. This time the target was emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane. The Obama administration created the rule in 2016 and some big oil companies actually wanted the administration to keep it. But the Trump administration did away with it anyway. Why? Tim Puko covers energy policy at the Wall Street Journal and he explains that there is a legal strategy at play aimed at future climate regulations.
info_outlineWildfires have once again spread across California...and millions of residents have been living without power for weeks. The deliberate blackouts by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, or PG&E, are an attempt to prevent power lines from starting new fires, a real possibility in dry and windy conditions.
Hundreds of the fires that started last year in California are believed to have been sparked by equipment from power companies — including the state’s deadliest fire. The Camp Fire was caused by a faulty electric transmission line. 85 people died and the town of Paradise was leveled.
Some have called for nationalizing PG&E to keep it accountable for the safety and maintenance of its equipment and the reliability of its service.
Across the country there's a patchwork of grids providing power to Americans, and *they* still mostly rely on fossil fuels to keep a steady flow of electricity. A couple of years ago, President Trump signed an executive order to speed up environmental reviews and approvals of infrastructure projects that are a high priority for the country, like making improvements to the grid.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has created policies to prop up financially struggling coal and nuclear power plants to ensure the electricity grid is resilient and reliable. But the main character in a new book by Wall Street Journal energy reporter Russell Gold looks beyond fossil fuels to power the grid. The book focuses on one man's mission to get more renewable wind energy online, and into American homes and businesses through transmission lines, and a more thoughtful connection of the nation’s grids. The book is called Superpower.