January 22, 2025

The Endangerment Finding: It Looks Like Trump 2.0 Will Be Much More Fun Than Trump 1.0

January 22, 2025/ Francis Menton

The first couple of days of the new Trump administration have seen the President sign a blizzard of Executive Orders. These provide more material than a humble solo blogger like myself can ever comment on comprehensively.
So I’ll just have to start with one particular item that I am deeply familiar with: the EPA’s so-called Endangerment Finding of December 2009.
I have seen differing counts of the number of Trump’s first-day EOs. ABC News here counts 42.
One of the most consequential has the title “Unleashing American Energy.” There is a large amount of important material in this EO. In overall summary, it directs the reversal of all of the Biden administration efforts to restrict and suppress the production and development of America’s energy resources.
But one provision, I would argue, is important above all the rest. That is Section 6(f), which directs a reconsideration of the so-called Endangerment Finding (EF) of December 2009.

January 04, 2025

Bizarre End To The Trump Criminal Prosecution

January 04, 2025/ Francis Menton

By now you may have almost forgotten that, back on May 30, Donald Trump was convicted by a New York jury on 34 supposedly felony counts of “falsifying business records.”
In the time since, the judge in the case, Juan Merchan, has occupied himself with denying various post-trial motions and with postponing the sentencing several times. Yesterday, Acting Justice Merchan issued an Order which, besides denying several of the outstanding motions, also scheduled sentencing for next Friday, January 10 — thus just over a week in advance of President-elect Trump’s second inauguration.
This Order is one of the most bizarre documents I have ever seen to issue from a court.

December 07, 2024

December 07, 2024/ Francis Menton

Throughout my life, no matter who has been in charge of federal or state prosecutions, there have been voices alleging some level of politicization of the law enforcement process. Mostly, those allegations have been about improper use of government resources to protect those in power, who should be relying on their own private lawyers when their own conduct is at issue.
But then there is the subject of use of the government’s law enforcement and regulatory authority to harass, disable and convict political opponents of the régime. Prior to the Trump Derangement Syndrome era, those sorts of abuses had been notably rare during my lifetime.
But there is nothing remotely comparable in our history to the diversion of law enforcement resources during the past four years toward the effort to take down the political opponents of the régime.

December 01, 2024

December 01, 2024/ Francis Menton

When a new President comes into office, there is quite properly a changing of the guard.
The people have voted for new policies. The norm is that all the Cabinet Secretaries, and all other Cabinet-level officials (like the heads of EPA, NSA and NASA, and the UN Ambassador) leave office, to be replaced by appointees of the new guy.
But there are exceptions. The two most notable are the Chairman of the Federal Reserve and the Director of the FBI.

November 29, 2024

November 29, 2024/ Francis Menton

The word “insurrection” has been liberally applied in the press to describe the January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill riot that ended with intrusion by demonstrators into the Capitol Building.
If the word “insurrection” can be applied there, then how about to the current efforts of federal bureaucrats to insulate themselves and their chosen policies from the control of newly re-elected President Trump?
In this post on October 1 (title: “The Greater ‘Threat To Democracy’ — Part III: Democrats Rule Even If Republicans Win”), I discussed multiple instances of efforts within the Biden administration to insulate its policies from getting changed by a new administration elected by the voters. Examples discussed in that post included efforts at NIH and EPA to entrench the idea that “The Science” somehow requires continuation of the policies of the current administration on things like Covid and climate change.
In that post, I promised more examples to come. Here is a small roundup:

November 21, 2024

November 21, 2024/ Francis Menton

Over the past two weeks, President-elect Trump has engaged in rapid-fire announcements of his picks for the cabinet and other top positions.
Among the announced selections are Trump’s nominees for the three top positions in climate and energy policy: EPA Administrator (Lee Zeldin), Secretary of Energy (Chris Wright), and Secretary of the Interior (Doug Burgum). In this post I will take a first look at these nominees.
Without doubt, these three Trump appointees will be an enormous improvement over the Biden administration functionaries they will replace (EPA Administrator Michael Regan, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland). The three outgoing Bidenauts are all committed fanatic climate warriors, fighting every day to restrict development and use of hydrocarbon fuels, and thus to make America weaker and Americans poorer. Having them in office has been like having the country’s energy policy under the control of a cabal of its worst enemies.
But is there anything about President-elect Trump’s nominees for these positions that we should be at least somewhat concerned about?