Owl in America || December 15, 2024

Notes from an American environmentalist

“Owl in America” is a series of letters chronicling the next four years from the perspective of an environmental lawyer. Practicing conservation and public-lands law during the first Trump administration was an exercise in hope and dogged persistence amidst the ever more effective demolition issuing forth from Washington, D.C. Much ground was lost, only some of which was regained during Biden’s four-year term. This time around, I’m taking notes.

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Hi all~

I’ve been away for several days as the flu swept through our household. First one, then the other, then the next; we’ve been quite ill but are out the other side of it now.

An update on the Environmental Protection Agency’s clean-car waiver for California: I’ve mentioned here that California’s Clean Air Act waiver application needed approval before Biden left office, because Trump has already stated he would not renew it. Trump could easily deny an unapproved application on his first day; an already-approved one is a lot more work—and more time-consuming—to get rid of, if it can be done. The Washington Post has reported that sources at the EPA say the waiver approval will issue this week.

California has long held a waiver from the federal government that allows it to impose stricter emissions standards on new cars than the federal government does. This has been important because California is the nation’s biggest car market, and a dozen other states follow its lead, altogether accounting for about 40% of the total U.S. car market. Car manufacturers have typically not chosen to make one model for California and its cohorts and a different, more-polluting model for the rest of the nation; it’s more efficient to design for the nation as a whole. This has driven industry-wide changes toward lower-emissions auto manufacturing that would not have occurred under the federal standards.

Now, the renewed waiver, expected to be issued this week, will allow California to move ahead with its plan to clean up its car fleet. The state’s rule would require that only zero-emission cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks be sold (new) in California by 2035, along with a small number of plug-in hybrids. Without the federal waiver, this policy could be dead in the water. With it, manufacturers have to increase availability of electric vehicles starting in 2026, and ratcheting upward until the deadline of 2035.

For now, it appears that EPA will grant California’s requested car waiver. There are several other waivers in the works that would permit the state’s tighter regulation of heavy-duty trucks, trains, and commercial boats, among others.

An increasing proportion of electric vehicles in the state will likely help its famously smoggy cities, and fewer gas stations means fewer opportunities for fumes to leak into the air and for liquid petroleum products to seep out and poison groundwater. Yet the materials that go into EVs require mass-scale mining and toxic manufacturing processes, with knock-on effects of despoiling indigenous sites, killing wildlife, and eradicating rare plants. That’s a tradeoff that doesn’t get enough attention; using cars much, much less and abstaining from buying new vehicles at all are by far “greener” choices than buying new.

That said, a lot of people aren’t going to think about that; they’ll just want a new car, and the heavy hand of the California regulator will be there to make sure the one they buy is electric, from 2035 forward. (The new rule will not ban the sale of used gas-powered vehicles, so Californians who don’t mind buying used cars can still guzzle all the gas they want.)

The EPA waiver for California, when it comes, will be the third of the Biden administration’s major efforts to “Trump-proof” parts of his environmental agenda. Last week, I wrote a piece mentioning the first: EPA finalized a ban on two common chemicals used in dry-cleaning and auto repair, among other things, that advocates have been targeting for decades. Trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene, already banned or strictly limited in the EU and California, are known carcinogens and neurotoxins. It has been a massive battle to reach this point.

What should have been a day of great celebration for those who’ve worked tirelessly to get these toxins banned was instead shrouded by concerns over how the incoming administration will damage the new rules. There are many paths, from outright reversal of the rule to lack of enforcement through various means, including executive order and defunding the agency. So, we’ll have to keep our eyes on this one.

The second involves a declaration by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland this week withdrawing public lands in the Pecos River watershed in New Mexico from new mining claims or leases. Valid for two years, this withdrawal will protect the river while the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service, who both manage portions of the withdrawn land, draw up a proposal to withdraw the lands from mining for the next 20 years.

Fishing in the upper Pecos River; Photo: U.S. Forest Service

According to Interior’s press release:

The Upper Pecos watershed provides intact, pristine habitat—including habitat for Rio Grande cutthroat, brown, and rainbow trout—and helps deliver clean water to downstream agricultural users and local communities. Since 2022, the Pecos River tributaries and nearby wetlands have been recognized as crucial Outstanding National Resource Waters by the State of New Mexico. The lands also offer outstanding opportunities for recreation, including hiking, backpacking, fishing and hunting.

Lands in the Upper Pecos are of cultural importance to Indigenous Peoples, including the Pueblos of Jemez and Tesuque, who have relied on the abundant natural resources in the watershed since time immemorial and continue to utilize the area for ceremonial practices. The greater Pecos River Valley is also home to traditional communities and acequia agriculture, which relies on a healthy watershed.

In parallel to the temporary (two for now, up to 20 years) administrative withdrawal here, the Congressional delegates from New Mexico have introduced bills in Congress for several years running to permanently withdraw the Pecos watershed from mining, as Congress is the only body with that power. So far, this legislation has not passed, and hopes don’t seem high that it will during the next two years, at least.

Besides these three so-called “Trump-proofing” actions—the EPA waiver for California, the toxic chemical ban, and the Pecos mining withdrawal—the Biden administration is frantically processing endangered species listings and critical habitat designations: ones I’ve written about here in the past couple of weeks include a proposal to list the monarch butterfly as threatened, a proposed critical habitat designation for the rusty-patched bumblebee, and an endangered listing for the swale paintbrush. There are others in the works and being announced; I’ll share those I learn about.

This feverish, eleventh-hour activity really does give the impression that the environmental agencies were not expecting another Trump presidency. (Or maybe, like me, their leaders couldn’t bring themselves to believe our nation would choose him, again, after he ran rampant through the beings and places we love, last time around.)

Trump has nominated billionaire Doug Burgum, current governor of North Dakota, to replace Deb Haaland as Secretary of the Interior. He is an ally to fossil-fuel interests, but it remains to be seen whether he will target actions like the mining withdrawal as a first priority.

The other big land-management agency in this country is the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Trump has nominated conservative think-tank founder Brooke Rollins to lead it. Under its umbrella is the U.S. Forest Service, which manages a vast portion of the nation’s public land—almost a third. (The BLM is the largest landholder, followed by the Forest Service, and a smaller portion is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, usually in the form of federal wildlife refuges, with the National Park Service managing a smaller portion still.)

Trump’s nominee for Agriculture Secretary, who will oversee the Forest Service, is an interesting character. Rollins is one of those American power players that moves under the radar of any but the most wonky press coverage but has immense sway in the new/old conservative movement now in its ascendancy. Co-founder of the think-tank America First Policy Institute (AFPI), Rollins has been quietly moving American thought to the right since at least the first Trump administration, though she was active in Texas politics before that.

It’s been reported that AFPI and the Heritage Foundation (known for being responsible for Project 2025) are vying for primacy in Trumpland, and in fact, AFPI authored its own game plan called the “Pathway to 2025 Initiative.” Rollins’ nomination is a sign that Trump is making room for representatives of both the Heritage and AFPI streams of far-right thought in his administration; and as we saw last term, he also likes to set up cage matches among his staff, enjoying the squabbles and rewarding the victors with temporary favor, until the next challenger emerges.

If knowing more about the semi-shadowy figures who are emerging from their think tanks to take prominent roles in the new administration is the kind of thing you feel drawn to, there are some great backgrounders on Rollins. I won’t try to sum them up here, but they are worth the read/listen if you want to get up to speed on a quiet mover few are familiar with:

• Politico | Trump Loves Her. His Allies Don’t Trust Her.

• The New York Times | The Shadow War to Determine the Next Trump Administration

• Know Your Enemy podcast, E103 | Trump’s Triumph

The agriculture department oversees the national forests and farm policy, but the vast majority of its budget (70%) goes toward oversight of anti-hunger programs: free school lunches and the SNAP program (food aid).

Prescott Preserve (abandoned golf course) before restoration, Palm Springs, California; Photo: Oswit Land Trust

Finally, a quick update on a story I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. Homeowners’ associations (HOAs) are often a thorn in the side of landowners trying to do land restoration work on any scale: putting prairie plants in front gardens, rehabilitating old golf courses, you name it. These quasi-municipal organizations use tactics from claiming decline in property values to exercising HOA bylaws against unmown grass, for example, to keep natural landscaping out. HOAs’ powers vary state-by-state, and also depend upon their founding documents. However, in many places, they have the capacity to fine landowners and frequently, can even put a lien against properties that don’t comply, enforceable in court.

So I wasn’t exactly shocked when I saw that the Oswit Land Trust’s big golf-course rehabilitation project in southern California had been challenged by the country club HOA. An abandoned 120-acre golf course in the center of Palm Springs (i.e., very high-dollar real estate) was destined to become a new housing development with a new golf course within, but the land trust was able to purchase the parcel and develop a plan to rewild it as a desert nature preserve. 191 bird species have already been reported on the property. It’s expected to provide for even more birds as well as several threatened and endangered species when fully rewilded.

Then the HOA sued to stop the project, claiming the land trust was required to operate a golf course on the property. I presume the HOA’s goal was to force the nonprofit to sell the land—as it wouldn’t want to or be able to run a golf course—with the housing developers as the likely buyer. The land trust counter-sued this fall.

This week, after lengthy mediation, the parties came to an agreement to end the lawsuit and move forward with the nature preserve. More details will be forthcoming, but if a small win for open space can be had, even in the middle of one of the most expensive cities in America, then that’s a nice reminder that we can save more land for our fellow species elsewhere. We just have to get creative and work locally.

Talk to you soon,
Rebecca

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Sources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/12/13/epa-california-climate-cars-evs/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2022/08/24/california-climate-cars/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2024/12/09/epa-ban-perc-tce-dry-cleaning-chemicals/

https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/secretary-haaland-initiates-two-year-protection-pecos-river-watershed-mining-claims

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/interior-secretary-announces-2-year-hiatus-on-new-mining-claims-on-upper-pecos/article_7a915e54-b8ab-11ef-9831-a7e18793bbd5.html

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF10585/14

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/23/agriculture-secretary-trump-usda/

https://oswitlandtrust.org/oswit-land-trust-and-mesquite-country-club-hoa-reach-an-agreement-in-principle-after-8-hours-of-mediation-the-end-of-the-lawsuit-regarding-prescott-preserve-is-in-sight/

https://thepalmspringspost.com/oswit-land-trust-files-cross-complaint-claiming-hoa-interfered-with-preserve-project-grant-funding/

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*Inspired by historian Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American.

You can reach me at fearlessgreen@substack.com