5 things Trump did while you weren't looking: Week 5

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5 things Trump did while you weren't looking: Week 5

What holiday? Trump plows ahead with new policy.

By Danny Vinik

07/07/2017 02:59 PM EDT


’For once, Washington was quiet this week. Lawmakers were out of town for the July 4 recess and President Donald Trump spent much of the time at his golf course in New Jersey. During the latter half of the week, the action picked up as Trump jetted off to the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, where he had his first in-person meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. At home, GOP leaders continued to try to negotiate a compromise on health care between moderates and conservatives.

Given all that, it might seem as though little actual policymaking happened —but you’d be surprised at how much actually happened. The Trump administration continued to roll back Barack Obama’s legacy this week, especially on climate policies where agencies undertook a series of moves that benefit oil and gas companies and infuriated environmentalists. Elsewhere, the Department of Education gave for-profit colleges another win and the Pentagon delayed an Obama-era policy on transgender troops.

Here’s the fifth week of POLITICO’s ongoing series on how Trump is quietly changing policy in America:

1. A new era for the renewable fuel standard
The Renewable Fuel Standard is one of the biggest annual fights in energy policy, a bruising battle between oil and agriculture interests. Under Obama, the agriculture industry frequently came out ahead as the Environmental Protection Agency upped the volume of biofuels — mostly corn-based ethanol — that oil refiners are required to mix into their gasoline supply.

Those days may be over. On Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Agency, under new Administrator Scott Pruitt, released its proposed Renewable Fuel Standard for 2018, which would leave the requirement for conventional biofuels unchanged at its 2017 level. But the EPA would reduce the requirement for advanced biofuels, the first reduction in volumes under the Renewable Fuel Standard. It’s a victory for oil and gas interests who praised the move but said it still did not go far enough. Biofuel producers slammed it.

Pruitt also signaled that he could undertake broader reforms to the Renewable Fuel Standard, saying the EPA will conduct a technical analysis to “inform a future rule” about the program and will be “assessing higher levels of ethanol-free gasoline.” A new regulatory regime is well underway.

2. More oil and gas drilling on federal lands
Under Obama, oil and gas companies frequently criticized the administration for limiting drilling on federal lands, an effort that was praised by environmentalists as a way to keep oil and gas in the ground and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

On Thursday, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke took a step in the exact opposite direction when he issued a secretarial order directing the Bureau of Land Management to speed up the permitting process for oil and gas leases......................................................



3. Another big victory for for-profit colleges



4. Trump takes another shot at Obama’s climate policy

5. The Pentagon delays lifting the ban on transgender troops

[lunasun]

2. As I have said b4, they are not resting on thier laurels .Always working overtime to destroy

our country, not make it better

[BigmanPigman]

3. They are going to destroy everything good in this country while they have the chance.

This is why they will never impeach him unless he does something horrific. I can't imagine what is horrific for them since almost everything I consider to be horrific he has already done. Maybe if he shot Wayne LaPierre on 5th Ave.