Trump brings big change to climate policies

President Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress are working to undo President Obama’s actions on climate change, underlining what could be a major shift on a policy that affects the world. While it’s been just three weeks since Trump’s inauguration, the president has already issued memos to approve the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, which were both blocked by Obama partly due to concerns about how they would contribute to climate change. Trump has also sought to limit regulations with another executive order, while the House has passed four measures under the Congressional Review Act to unwind Obama-era rules on energy. Two of those measures have also passed the Senate. On Capitol Hill, House Republicans are working to overhaul how the EPA uses science as part of an effort to roll back what they see as unjustifiable regulations. Tom Pyle, president of the right-leaning Institute for Energy Research, said Trump is likely to implement even more campaign promises soon. “The key will be getting an energy and environment team in place, and that includes the White House. And once the Senate Democrats get through their process of getting over the fact that they lost and letting these guys get in place and begin to implement the president’s agenda, there’s going to be much more activity,” said Pyle, who served on Trump’s transition team at the Energy Department...more