Trump's list of environmental disasters, updated

This is for my friend Todd, who insists there's not a whit of difference between Democrats and Republicans, that a Hillary presidency would essentially be no different than a Twitler shit-show presidency.

Here's a list of headlines from National Geographic that you would NOT have seen under a Clinton presidency and that signal potential disaster for the country, the climate and the world.

1. PIPELINES GREENLIT
January 24, 2017
President Trump issues several memoranda aiming to hasten permitting for the Dakota Access and Keystone XL oil pipelines.

2. FOSSIL FUEL CEO BECOMES CHIEF DIPLOMAT
February 1, 2017
The U.S. Senate confirms ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.

3. STREAMS REOPENED TO MINING WASTE
February 16, 2017
President Trump signs a joint resolution passed by Congress revoking the U.S. Department of the Interior’s “Stream Protection Rule.”

4. WATER PROTECTION MAY DRY UP
February 28, 2017
President Trump issues an executive order formally asking the EPA to review the “Waters of the United States” rule, an Obama-era rule meant to clarify which U.S. waters fall under federal Clean Water Act jurisdiction.

5. FEDERAL LANDS WON’T BE UNLEADED
March 2, 2017
After riding to work on a horse, U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke spends his first day on the job rescinding an Obama-era prohibition of lead ammunition on federal lands and waters.

6. EMISSIONS INFO REQUEST NIXED
March 2, 2017
The EPA withdraws an Obama EPA request for more detailed information on oil and natural-gas facilities.

7. ‘SCIENCE’ SCRUBBED
March 7, 2017
The New Republic reports that the EPA’s Office of Science and Technology removed the word “science” from its mission statement, based on information provided by the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative.

8. EPA CHIEF DOWNPLAYS CLIMATE
March 9, 2017
In a sharp break with scientific consensus, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt says in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that carbon dioxide’s role in the Earth’s changing climate remains unclear.

9. SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT BUDGET THREATENED
March 13, 2017
The White House releases its first preliminary budget under President Trump. Confirming weeks of speculation, the budget outlines deep cuts to U.S. science and environmental agencies—notably EPA and NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—and a vast array of social programs, in an effort to increase defense spending by $54 billion.

10. FUEL EFFICIENCY STANDARDS RECONSIDERED
March 15, 2017
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao announce that the EPA will reconsider the Obama-era emissions requirements for vehicles with model years between 2022 and 2025.

11. KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE APPROVED
March 24, 2017
The Trump administration’s State Department grants a permit for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

12. DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE PREPARED FOR USE
March 27, 2017

13. CLIMATE ACTIONS UNDONE
March 28, 2017
President Trump signs an executive order that seeks to dismantle much of the work on climate change enacted by the Obama administration.

14. PESTICIDE AVOIDS TOTAL BAN
March 29, 2017
Against the advice of the EPA’s chemical safety experts, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt rejects a decade-old petition asking that the EPA ban all use of the pesticide chlorpyrifos.

15. EPA SCIENTIST RETIRES WITH A BANG
March 31, 2017
Environmental scientist Michael Cox retires from the EPA after more than 25 years with the agency, penning a scorching farewell letter to agency administrator Scott Pruitt. The letter, which garners significant media coverage, lambasts the Trump administration for “working to dismantle EPA and its staff as quickly as possible.”

16. CLIMATE CHANGE STAFFERS REASSIGNED
April 7, 2017
News outlets report that several staff members at EPA’s headquarters who specialized in climate change adaptation have been reassigned.

17. EPA ANNOUNCES “BACK-TO-BASICS” AGENDA
April 13, 2017
With Pennsylvania’s Harvey coal mine as his backdrop, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt announces a “back-to-basics” agenda for the environmental agency, which he describes as “protecting the environment by engaging with state, local, and tribal partners to create sensible regulations that enhance economic growth.” The agenda includes reviews of the Clean Power Plan and the Waters of the United States rule, two key Obama-era environmental regulations, as well as promises to clear the backlog of new chemicals awaiting EPA approval.

18. PRUITT CALLS FOR EXITING PARIS AGREEMENT
April 14, 2017
In an interview on “Fox & Friends,” EPA administrator Scott Pruitt says that he’s personally opposed to the Paris Agreement, the international pact to fight climate change negotiated in 2015.

19. INTERIOR DEPARTMENT SCRUBS CLIMATE CHANGE WEBSITE
April 19, 2017
An Interior Department official updates the department’s climate change website, deleting much of its content in the process, Motherboard reports.

20. TRUMP ORDERS REVIEW OF NATIONAL MONUMENTS
April 26, 2017
In a sweeping executive order with few precedents, Trump instructs Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review as many as 40 national monuments created since 1996 to determine if any of Trump’s three predecessors exceeded their authority when protecting large tracts of already-public land under the Antiquities Act of 1906.

21. ORDER AIMS TO EXPAND OFFSHORE DRILLING
April 28, 2017
President Trump signs an executive order that orders a review of Obama-era bans on offshore oil and gas drilling in parts of the Arctic, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans.

22. EPA SCRUBS CLIMATE CHANGE WEBSITE
April 28, 2017
The EPA announces that it is reviewing its web content related to climate change. An immediate casualty of the review: the agency’s longtime website devoted to explaining climate change.

23. EPA DISMISSES SCIENCE ADVISORS
May 5, 2017
The EPA dismisses several members of the Board of Scientific Counselors, an 18-member advisory board that reviews the research of EPA scientists.

24. TRUMP BUDGET PROPOSES STEEP CUTS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
May 23, 2017
President Trump’s 2018 budget, sent to Congress Tuesday, calls for massive cuts in scientific research and in a slew of environmental programs that protect air and water.

25. U.S. PULLS OUT OF PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT
June 1, 2017
President Trump said that he will pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement, steering away from a group of 194 other countries that have promised to curb planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

26. INTERIOR TO REVIEW GREATER SAGE GROUSE PROTECTION
June 8, 2017
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Wednesday ordered a review of an Obama administration conservation plan to protect the greater sage grouse to determine if that plan interferes with Trump administration efforts to increase energy production on federal lands.

27. INTERIOR SUGGESTS SHRINKING BEARS EARS
June 12, 2017
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recommended that Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah’s red rock country be shrunk by President Trump.

28. NOAA CANCELS RULE TO PROTECT WHALES FROM FISHING NETS
June 13, 2017
The Trump Administration this week cancelled a rule that would have helped prevent endangered whales and sea turtles from becoming entangled in fishing nets off the U.S. West Coast.

29. INTERIOR DEPARTMENT RELAXES ASPECTS OF SAGE GROUSE PROTECTION
August 7, 2017
The Department of the Interior has released the results of a 60-day review of the Obama administration’s conservation plan to protect the greater sage grouse.

30. REPORT: EPA ENFORCEMENT LAGS UNDER TRUMP
August 10, 2017
A newly published report asserts that in its first six months, the EPA under the Trump administration is off to a slow start enforcing environmental laws.

31. TRUMP REVOKES FLOOD STANDARDS ACCOUNTING FOR SEA-LEVEL RISE
August 15, 2017
President Trump has signed an executive order revoking federal flood-risk standards that incorporated rising sea levels predicted by climate science.

32. MINING HEALTH STUDY HALTED; CLIMATE ADVISORY PANEL DISBANDED
August 22, 2017
The Trump administration has suspended a study of health risks to residents who live near mountaintop removal coal mine sites in the Appalachian Mountains.

33. TRUMP EPA POISED TO SCRAP CLEAN POWER PLAN
October 9, 2017
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is poised to withdraw the Clean Power Plan, the lynchpin of the Obama Administration's effort to combat climate change, the New York Times reported Monday.

34. INTERIOR DEPARTMENT PROPOSES LARGEST-EVER OIL AND GAS LEASE AUCTION
October 23, 2017
The U.S. Department of Interior has proposed auctioning off oil and gas leases for 77 million acres of federal waters within the Gulf of Mexico—the largest lease auction of its kind ever announced.

35. TRUMP UNVEILS PLAN TO DRAMATICALLY DOWNSIZE TWO NATIONAL MONUMENTS
December 4, 2017
In a speech delivered in Salt Lake City, President Trump announced his intention to sharply reduce two Utah national monuments established by his predecessors.

36. TRUMP DROPS CLIMATE CHANGE FROM LIST OF NATIONAL SECURITY THREATS
December 18, 2017
President Donald Trump has announced that the United States will no longer regard climate change by name as a national security threat.

37. TRUMP INTERIOR DEPARTMENT DECLARES THAT ACCIDENTAL BIRD DEATHS ARE LEGAL
December 22, 2017
Reversing Obama-era policy, the Trump administration has decreed that it will no longer consider the accidental killing of birds—from eagles colliding with wind turbines to ducks zapped on power lines—a violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA).

38. REPORT: CLIMATE CHANGE WEB SITES 'CENSORED' UNDER TRUMP
January 10, 2018
A new report finds that in the first year of the Trump administration, U.S. government websites have been systematically altered to cut mentions of climate change.

39. MOST OF NATIONAL PARKS ADVISORY BOARD RESIGNS IN PROTEST
January 15, 2018
Nine of the 12 members of the National Park System Advisory Board resigned on January 15, the Washington Post reported on January 16, in protest of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's refusal to meet with them.

40. EPA LOOSENS REGULATIONS ON TOXIC AIR POLLUTION
January 25, 2018
In a brief legal memo, the Trump EPA has dropped “once in, always in” (OIAI), a Clinton-era EPA policy that aimed to lock in reductions of hazardous air pollution from industrial sources.

41. REPORT: TRUMP MULLING MAJOR CUTS TO CLEAN ENERGY RESEARCH
January 31, 2018
The Washington Post reports that in its 2019 budget, the Trump administration is seeking to slash Department of Energy funding for renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives by 72 percent.

42. TRUMP PROPOSES CUTS TO CLIMATE AND CLEAN-ENERGY PROGRAMS
February 12, 2018
In its FY2019 budget and addendum, the Trump administration has proposed sweeping rollbacks to U.S. programs designed to study and mitigate the effects of climate change, as well as cuts to research on renewable energy.

43. EPA MULLS SHAKE-UP TO ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH PROGRAM
February 26, 2018
The Trump administration is thinking about reorganizing an EPA group that funds research on children’s health and environmental health disparities affecting minorities and the poor.

44. FEMA EXPELS "CLIMATE CHANGE" FROM STRATEGIC PLAN
March 16, 2018
NPR reports that the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency has stricken “climate change” and associated verbiage from its strategic plan, on the heels of one of the most expensive years of natural disasters in modern U.S. history.

45. EPA STARTS ROLLBACK OF CAR EMISSIONS STANDARDS
April 2, 2018
In a press release, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt announced that the U.S. government would revisit the Obama administration's fuel efficiency standards for cars and light-duty trucks—the first step in a rollback of one of the U.S.'s biggest efforts to curb carbon emissions.

46. THREATENED SPECIES PROTECTION RULE UNDER REVIEW
April 2, 2018
The White House is currently reviewing a regulation that some environmental groups fear could nix protections granted to nearly 300 threatened species.

47. EPA ISSUES CONTROVERSIAL RULE ON SCIENCE 'TRANSPARENCY'
April 24, 2018
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt proposed a rule Tuesday that would only allow the agency to consider in its rule making scientific studies for which the underlying data are made available publicly. “The science that we use is going to be transparent. It’s going to be reproducible,” Pruitt told reporters.

48. WHITE HOUSE CUTS NASA CLIMATE MONITORING PROGRAM
May 9, 2018
Science magazine reports that the Trump administration has ended NASA's Carbon Monitoring System, a $10-million-per-year effort to fund pilot programs intended to improve the monitoring of global carbon emissions.