How Is Trump F*cking The Environment Today? How ISN’T He?

CNN reports that Trump’s Environmental Pollution Administration is planning to eliminate the public-private Energy Star program, which for decades has provided consumers information on how much energy various home items use or save — not just washers, dryers, heat pumps, and AC units, but also TV sets and even windows — so they can make better-informed decisions while shopping. In addition to helping people estimate what products will best fit their energy needs and budgets, the program also helped people find tax credits for energy efficiency, which is fine since we’re sure Trump intends to do away with those, too, at least at the federal level.

The program is completely voluntary for companies to participate in, and costs the EPA about $32 million a year, which is a pittance (or a couple months of “golf trips”) in government accounting. There’s a lot of bang for those bucks; the ratings system brings energy savings to consumers of around $40 billion annually, according to Paula Glover, head of the nonprofit “Alliance to Save Energy” coalition. A pre-Trump EPA estimate put the national energy cost savings at around $500 billion since the start of the program in 1992, and credits the program with reducing greenhouse gas emissions by four billion metric tons in that time. The EPA also estimates that by choosing the most efficient appliances rated, homeowners can cut their energy costs by around $450 a year and “still enjoy the quality and performance they expect.” That works out to about $350 in savings for each dollar spent, but we’re sure some MAGAmind would insist the numbers are all made up by liberals who hate you.

Besides, Donald Trump reflexively hates energy efficiency, so even though Energy Star doesn’t rate his top enemy, toilets, it does rate dishwashers, and he’s absolutely certain that you can’t get dishes clean without flushing several hundred times, as he’s always said. Remember, this is a guy who also believes that cars were magically safer and more efficient in the good old days when they didn’t have all that safety and emissions control crap on ‘em. And gee, his old LaSalle ran great.

Hell, even industry likes the ratings system, in general; in April, more than a thousand companies, cities, and trade groups sent the EPA a letter asking it to continue Energy Star, which is good for consumers and helps drive competition and innovation and all that, not to mention helpful in marketing if you’re a company that makes efficient stuff. And again, it’s a completely voluntary program for manufacturers, not an actual regulatory regime. Energy Star hasn’t done efficiency ratings for gas stoves since 2022, since methane gas is a powerful greenhouse pollutant, but that hasn’t prevented the sale of gas stoves. And of course the program has always polled well, because Americans like the idea of saving energy even if they hang up the phone and drive their SUV to go shopping.

No official end to Energy Star has yet been announced, but it’s likely to come soon, say experts who know what Donald Trump is like.

Donald Trump loves to go on about how he “loves clean air and water,” by which he really means he’s fine with pollution that isn’t too incredibly visible, and maybe fine with factory smoke and filthy water if it’s not anywhere near him. By coincidence, the National Park Service last week suspended its program to monitor air quality in America’s 63 national parks, as the Washington Post reports (gift link).

The Interior Department, which includes the National Park Service, issued stop-work orders last week to the two contractors running the program, the email shows. The move adds to the chaos and uncertainty at many national parks that are already reeling from widespread layoffs ahead of the busy summer season.

However, this may be one of those little Trumpy glitches where nobody actually knows what the fuck the actual policy is, or will be, because the Post also reports that after the story was published, NPS spokesperson Rachel Pawlitz explained by email that heavens no, those stop work orders will be rescinded, you bet, and that “contractors will be notified immediately.” Or perhaps notified that they shouldn’t be leaking the next stop-work orders to the media in a couple weeks, we are only speculating.

The Park Service data on air quality has in the past been used to help federal regulators decide whether to permit development outside park boundaries that might affect air quality, not just for visitors’ health but because park visitors like being able to actually see national treasures like the Grand Canyon or the big old rocks and trees in that place Trump calls “Yo, Semite.” Now that the official policy of the USA is to drill anywhere that’s not an active volcano, we aren’t sure the data is of any use going forward, but apparently someone at NPS put the pause in air quality monitoring on pause.

Whether temporary or permanent — yes we remain skeptical! — the pause on air monitoring in the national parks follows the State Department’s similar decision in March to end air quality monitoring at embassies and consulates around the world. Not only was that information useful to staff and their families, who tend to like breathing, it was also very useful to “science” because that program often provided the only data on air quality in countries that don’t do such monitoring themselves, or are less willing to publish the data because they’re dirty birdies like Trump wants us to become.

As part of their Big Beautiful Cut Taxes For Billionaires Forever reconciliation bill, Republicans on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee are kicking around the idea of kicking around people who drive electric vehicles, to punish them for not owning big dirty SUVs like normal Americans. Not that they’re calling it a punishment, of course; instead, Republicans point out that EVs don’t pay the federal gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon, and how is that fair, since they drive on the roads like everyone else, huh? After all, that tax goes into the Highway Trust Fund, which helps pay for road maintenance, and why should EV drivers get a free ride, HENGHHH?!?!?!

I Finally Got An Electric Car So Good Luck EVER Getting Me To Shut Up About EVs

This is where we say yes of course we EV drivers should pay our fair share, and in many states (39 of them) we already do, in the form of higher annual registration fees. Twenty-eight states also charge higher fees for hybrid cars.

The problem is that the bill would dun EVs for far more than equivalent-sized internal combustion vehicles pay in gas taxes: Battery EVs, which use no gasoline to run, would pay $250 a year, and hybrids — plug-in or otherwise — would pay $100 a year.

By contrast, someone driving a comparable conventionally fueled car that gets 28 MPG, driving 11,000 miles a year, only pays around $75 in federal gas taxes under our current system, the Washington Post estimates. And of course hybrids would still pay their $100 a year, while small fuel-efficient gasoline gars that get similar total mileage wouldn’t be penalized.

Needless to say, the same GOP congressturds whining about how EVs have it too easy, and who plan to repeal the $7,500 tax credit for EV purchases, are very pointedly not calling for an increase in the gas tax, which hasn’t been raised since 1992. (To be fair, Democrats have chickened out on that, too, but it’s freaking anathema for Republicans.) Since even conventionally fueled cars have continued gaining in efficiency since 1992, the Highway Trust Fund is likely to be insolvent by 2028, and even the new national EV fees wouldn’t generate enough revenue to save it.

Originally the House plan would have phased in a $20 annual fee for non-electric cars, starting in 2030, but some Rs considered even that too punitive, so they dropped that altogether and hiked the EV fee to $250, from the initial proposal of $200.

States are experimenting with various formulas to equitably pay for highway construction and maintenance, since the gas tax is already becoming useless, but we’ll let you read up on those yourselves, you nerds. Just punishing clean vehicles and not taxing dirty ones ain’t the answer.

It also goes without saying that Republicans have no interest in reducing fossil fuel industry subsidies, which currently cost taxpayers around $760 billion a year. What a silly idea.

Also, the House proposal would exempt farm vehicles, but we couldn’t find anything about whether armored bulldozers would have to pay for highway upkeep. Probably not; they have important work to do.

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