Trump is making attacks on clean energy and climate a core part of his argument in his presidential campaign. Given that Trump considers climate change a “hoax” and a “con job,” it’s no surprise that he’s focusing his campaign on gutting the landmark climate progress made by the Biden administration. Trump has promised to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, be a “dictator” on “day one” so he can “drill, drill, drill,” withdraw (again) from the Paris Climate Agreement and virtually eliminate all environmental protections and standards to reduce carbon pollution. And Trump has said he wants to go even further when it comes to his massive tax breaks for Big Oil — not coincidentally while fossil fuel billionaires are offering to pay his growing legal bills.

The contrast on climate could not be clearer. This document overviews the contrast between Biden and Trump on climate focused on actually tackling climate change, climate science, pollution, oil and gas appointees, drilling, and fossil fuel subsidies, environmental justice, electric vehicles, global leadership, and energy efficiency.  

The Contrast: Tackling Climate Change

Trump Failed To Fight Climate Change

• Trump: “On day one of my new administration, I will quickly end Joe Biden’s inflation catastrophe by stopping his wasteful spending, terminating his green new scam. it’s a green new scam, it’s not a green new deal. It’s called the green new scam.” 
• Trump attacked the IRA’s grant and loan spending. 
• The Trump administration “weakened or wiped out more than 125 rules and policies aimed at protecting the nation’s air, water and land, with 40 more rollbacks underway.”
• Trump’s actions cost Americans 1.1. million clean energy jobs.

Biden Has Taken Historic Action To Tackle The Climate Crisis

• President Biden has taken more actions to protect, restore, and secure our health and environment than any president in U.S. history, more than 320 in total. 
• Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, the biggest climate spending bill ever. 
• Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the first major investment in climate resilience.  
• President Biden’s Clean Energy Plan has created more than 270,000 jobs and spurred hundreds of billions of dollars in private sector investments. If Trump wins, he will end investments in clean energy, which could lead to thousands of workers being laid off and hurt local communities across the country.

The Contrast: Climate Science

Trump Denied Climate Science

• Trump called climate change a “hoax” and a “total con job,” and global warming a “hoax.” 
• While in office, Trump made 1,065 false or misleading claims on the environment.
  • In 2020, NOAA contradicted its own meteorologists to support the Trump Administration’s false claims about Hurricane Dorian’s path threatening Alabama. 

• During his presidency, Trump scrubbed reports of climate change from government websites, including the EPA, DOE, and the State Department.
  • In March 2019, the Trump Administration censored climate change references in the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) press release. 
• In the first two years of the Trump administration, scientists were sidelined or muted and more than 1,600 left the government and 4,900 by the end.
• While visiting California in the wake of  wildfires, Trump was confronted by California’s Secretary of Natural Resources about the scientific conclusion that Climate Change fueled the wildfires, to which Trump replied, “well, I don’t think science knows, actually.”
• Politico: “Trump’s campaign utterances, and the policy proposals being drafted by hundreds of his supporters, point to the likelihood that his return to the White House would bring an all-out war on climate science.” 
• Project 2025 would sideline and stop scientific determinations in policy.

Biden’s Administration Centered Climate Science

• The Biden administration restored the Climate Change page to the EPA’s website and relaunched the climate indicators website showing how climate change is impacting people’s health and environment. 
• Biden signed an executive order to Establish the President’s Council Of Advisors On Science And Technology.
• The Biden administration took steps to establish scientific integrity policies and shield scientists from political interference. 
• The Department of the Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) have finalized three rules that will restore important protections for species and their habitats; strengthen the processes for listing species, designating of critical habitat, and consultation with other federal agencies; and ensure a science-based approach that will improve both agencies’ ability to fulfill their responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
• The Environmental Protection Agency issued an interim final rule to rescind the previous administration’s rule entitled “Increasing Consistency and Transparency in Considering Benefits and Costs in the Clean Air Act Rulemaking Process,” also known as the Benefit-Cost Rule. EPA reviewed the Benefit-Cost Rule and found that it imposed procedural restrictions and requirements that would have limited EPA’s ability to use the best available science in developing Clean Air Act regulations, and would be inconsistent with economic best practices.
• Biden signed the Memorandum On Restoring Trust In Government Through Scientific Integrity And Evidence-Based Policymaking. The Department of Justice withdrew from several Trump-era enforcement documents since they conflicted with President Biden’s Executive Order #13990 Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science To Tackle the Climate Crisis.

The Contrast: Pollution

Trump Rolled Back Protections On Pollution

• The Trump administration “weakened or wiped out more than 125 rules and policies aimed at protecting the nation’s air, water and land, with 40 more rollbacks underway.”
• 2019: Trump’s EPA eliminated Obama’s Clean Power Plan. 
• 2024: Trump’s campaign website said he planned to abolish protections from carbon pollution again.  
• In 2019 the Trump White House threatened to veto the 2020 NDAA in part over PFAS clean up provisions. In 2020, Trump threatened to veto a house-passed PFAS bill that sought to establish a national drinking water standard and clean up PFAS across the country. Trump’s administration implemented a regulation that companies did not have to disclose the presence of PFAS in discharges if it only made up a small concentration of the overall discharge.
• Trump blocked water safety rules and allowed corporate polluters to pump chemicals linked to cancer, health risks for children, and brain damage into our water.
• The Trump administration finalized a rule that rolled back reporting and technology use regulations for wastewater discharges that contain coal ash and toxic heavy metals from coal burning power plants.
• Trump weakened NEPA by no longer requiring federal agencies to account for cumulative effects on the environment.
• The Guardian: “Donald Trump and his advisers have made campaign promises to toss crucial environmental regulations and boost the planet-heating fossil fuel sector.”

Biden Restored And Strengthened Pollution Protections

• The EPA proposed its strongest-ever climate rules for the power sector, requiring coal- and many gas-fired plants to capture 90% of their emissions by 2030.
• The EPA proposed to strengthen and update the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for coal-fired power plants, which would be the most significant update since the rule was first issued in 2012. 
• The EPA announced the final Good Neighbor Plan, a rule to cut smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution from power plants and other industrial facilities in 23 states. 
• The EPA announced its proposal to restore the “Once In, Always In” policy, which required major industrial facilities to continue to comply with the highest level of protective pollution standards, even after periods of inactivity.
• The EPA proposed regulations that would reduce the emission of cancer-causing substances from chemical plants. The rule is expected to cut more than 6,000 tons of toxic air pollution a year. 
• The EPA proposed the most ambitious pollution standards ever for cars and trucks. The first proposed standard is for light- and medium-duty vehicles and the second for heavy-duty vehicles, both for model years 2027 to 2055. Together, the proposals are estimated to avoid nearly 10 billion tons of CO2 emissions. 

Trump Attacked Vehicle Standards

• After lobbying by automotive companies, the Trump administration reduced fuel standards by over 30%. After fighting with auto execs over standards, Trump launched a probe of the automakers.
• The Trump administration revoked California’s ability to set its own standards.
• 2020: The final CAFE and greenhouse gas emissions standards went into effect.   
• Trump’s 2024 campaign website said he “will also end Biden’s insane CAFE fuel economy standards.”

Biden’s Administration Tightened Standards

• The Biden administration restored California’s waiver to set its own standards. 
• The Biden administration announced the strongest ever car emissions standards as well as standards for heavy-duty trucks.

The Contrast: Oil And Gas

Appointees

Trump Installed Industry Leaders In Positions Of Power

• Trump selected Rex Tillerson then-CEO of Exxon to be his Secretary Of State.
• Trump nominated former oil lobbyist David Bernhardt for Interior Secretary.
• Trump nominated former energy lobbyist Andrew Wheeler to run the Environmental Protection Agency.
• New York Times: “Among 20 of the most powerful people in government environment jobs, most have ties to the fossil fuel industry or have fought against the regulations they now are supposed to enforce.”

Drilling

Trump Increased Drilling While President

• Trump opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, and has plans to do it again.
• Trump repealed common-sense rules to protect air and water from dangerous toxic pollution from fracking.

Trump Vowed To Increase Drilling In A Second Administration

• Trump said he wanted to be a “dictator” on “day one” so that he can eliminate environmental protections and expand oil drilling, including in our nation’s treasured public lands and coastal areas.

Biden Has Restricted Drilling

• Biden protected the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and protected 13 million acres of Alaska’s national petroleum reserve.

Fossil Fuel Subsidies

Trump Embraced Fossil Fuel Subsidies

• Trump’s tax cut gave $25 billion to big oil.  
• Trump bailed out the oil industry during the pandemic and pledged, “we will never let the great u.s. oil & gas industry down.”
• Now, Trump promised Big Oil more tax breaks and to cut environmental protections they oppose. 

Biden Wants To End Fossil Fuel Subsidies

• Biden campaigned on and submitted budget requests each year to eliminate wasteful subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. 

The Contrast: Environmental Justice

Trump Rolled Back Protections And Environmental Justice Efforts

• Trump removed Cumulative Impact Analysis under NEPA, which would have allowed agencies to consider projects separately and consider health effects of projects in isolation. 
• Project 2025 called for refocusing the EPA away from the climate crisis and ending its environmental justice functions.

Biden’s Administration Centered Environmental Justice In Its Work

• In his first week in office, Biden created the Justice40 initiative, which directs 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, and other investments to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.
• Biden restored cumulative impact analysis under NEPA. 
• The EPA announced $550 million from the Inflation Reduction Act to expedite investments through the Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking program. The program will fund community projects that reduce pollution in overburdened communities thereby advancing environmental justice. 
• The EPA announced the availability of approximately $100 million for projects that advance environmental justice in underserved and overburdened communities across the country. This funding, made possible through President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, marks the largest amount of environmental justice grant funding ever offered by the Agency.

The Contrast: Electric Vehicles (EVs)

Trump Repeatedly Attacked EVs

• As president Trump wanted to end the EV tax credit. 
• Trump attacked electric car subsidies from the Inflation Reduction Act and repeatedly vowed to repeal Biden’s “insane electric vehicle mandate.”
• Trump attacks EVs as a “ban,” an auto-job killer that would bankrupt auto companies and only drive a short distance.
• Trump attacked EVs as failing in the cold, straining the grid, and harmful for the environment.
• Trump attacked charging stations and the price of constructing them.

President Biden’s Clean Energy Plan Spurred An EV Manufacturing Jobs Boom

• Over 32,000 new EV jobs have been announced since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.
• Over 92,000 new battery jobs have been announced since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.
• The Biden administration’s $2.8 billion investment in the EV supply chain from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will create more than 8,000 jobs and expand the clean energy economy in the Southeast.
• EV tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act are bringing production from Asia to the U.S.
  • Hyundai and Kia are moving production to the U.S., so they are not excluded from expanded EV tax credits under the IRA. 
• The Department of Energy announced a $5 million investment for the Battery Workforce Initiative, which will support five workforce training programs for the domestic lithium battery supply chain.
• Domestic EV Manufacturing is expanding thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act. North American factories produced over 219,000 EVs in the first quarter of 2023, a 39% year-over-year increase. Dozens of companies announced plans to manufacture EV batteries in the U.S. because of Inflation Reduction Act incentives.

The Contrast: Global Leadership

Trump Withdrew The U.S. From The Paris Climate Agreement, And Would Do So Again

• One of Trump’s first actions as president was to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement, despite experts concluding that the U.S.’s participation would save over half a trillion dollars annually and the agreement would create 24 million clean energy jobs globally by 2030. 
• Now, Trump says he would withdraw the U.S. from the landmark climate pact once again.

Biden Reestablished The U.S.’s Global Climate Leadership 

• On his first day in office, President Biden signed a document that would rejoin the U.S. into the Paris climate agreement.

The Contrast: Energy Efficiency

Trump Attacked Energy Efficiency Efforts

• While Trump was president his administration rolled back efficiency standards for lightbulbs and common household appliances. 
• Trump has commonly ranted about efficiency standards for refrigerators and dishwashers, gas stoves and sinks, showerheads, and dryers. 
• Now Trump has promised that “On day one of my new administration, I will quickly end Joe Biden’s inflation catastrophe by stopping his wasteful spending, terminating his green new scam. It’s a green new scam, it’s not a green new deal. It’s called the green new scam.“

Biden’s Clean Energy Plan Supported Energy Efficiency

• The IRA established home energy efficiency and appliance rebates. 

• The DOE finalized new energy efficiency standards for residential gas furnaces that will lower household utility costs by $1.5 billion per year while lowering greenhouse gas emissions. The standards will take effect in late 2028.
• The DOE proposed new energy efficiency standards for water heaters, which are projected to save consumers $11.4 billion annually on energy and water bills.

The DOE announced new energy efficiency actions for dishwashers, beverage vending machines, and final standards for electric motors. The standards are expected to save Americans $652 million in utility bills each year and businesses $464 million a year on energy costs.