States, cities gear up to take lead on climate as Trump returns

States and municipalities are preparing to take the lead on climate action in a second Trump term as they brace for an administration likely to be less climate-focused and sometimes antagonistic to their efforts.

President-elect Trump has falsely referred to climate change as a “hoax” and vowed to promote policies boosting fossil fuels — the main driver of planet-warming emissions — and he has nominated similarly industry-friendly figures including former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) and fracking CEO Chris Wright to implement his agenda. He is also likely to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement, an action he took in his first term before President Biden rejoined it.

The change in leadership in Washington will likely leave climate policy largely in the hands of state and city governments that have already taken ambitious steps to combat climate change during both the Biden and first Trump administrations.

Elijah Hutchinson, executive director at New York’s Mayor’s Office Of Climate And Environmental Justice, told The Hill that his office will likely be able to maintain some continuity in its operations as the White House changes hands.

“We're expecting some level of disruption, but … so much of what we do is under local, city and state control, that a lot of the focuses of our office can continue,” he said.

The office, established in 2021, focuses on addressing the disproportionate effects of climate change on the city’s low-income and minority residents, as well as developing strategies for retrofitting its buildings and improving land use to account for flooding and extreme weather. The city has set a target of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050, which it says is aligned with the 1.5-degree warming threshold set by the Paris Agreement to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Hutchinson touted the work the city has already done, including becoming the first large American city to require climate budgeting, or the incorporation of climate impacts into the city’s budgeting process. Cities such as Oslo, Mumbai and London have similar requirements in place.

However, Hutchinson said, “where we might struggle is with some of those discretionary resources, particularly where we've been super successful in accessing IRA [Inflation Reduction Act] and BIL [Bipartisan Infrastructure Law] money to the tune of over $2 billion in discretionary programs that fund things like transportation, that are connected to climate and environmental justice.”

Hutchinson said the city is working to lock in secure commitments for discretionary federal funds as soon as possible ahead of Trump’s inauguration, “so that we know that money is there.”

“That can be particularly challenging on some of our coastal resilience work, however … in New York City, we have major unmet needs in coastal resilience and require a lot of federal and state participation in those programs,” he added.

On the opposite end of the country, California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) told The Hill his office expects Trump to attempt to rescind the federal waiver that allows the state to impose more stringent tailpipe emission standards than those of the federal government. The first Trump administration rescinded the waiver before it was restored under Biden.

The Biden administration approved another California waiver Wednesday approving its rule, which seeks to phase out new gas-powered car sales in the state by 2035. The American Petroleum Institute (API) almost immediately called on the Trump administration to rescind the action, with Will Hupman, API's vice president of downstream policy, saying the lobbying group “urge[s] the incoming administration to swiftly change course.”

Bonta noted the state attorney general’s office’s history of tangles with Trump on environmental issues, saying “the courts continue to be an important place to resolve disputes. … We went there during Trump 1.0 [and] sued the Trump administration over 120 times,” the majority of which were environmental cases. One of those lawsuits was over the waiver rescission, which Bonta said his office would be prepared to sue over again if necessary.

“I do think that that action in the past may be another one we see in the future” from the Trump White House, he said. 

Although the conservative-majority Supreme Court has repeatedly blocked Biden-era energy and environmental policies, the court this month declined to hear a challenge from 17 states to California’s emissions waiver.

Bonta became California attorney general in 2021 after Biden appointed his predecessor, Xavier Becerra, as secretary of Health and Human Services. Despite his personal lack of experience with legal battles against the Trump White House, Bonta said the attorney general’s office has “a team in place that we have rejuvenated” and has “kept folks with institutional memory on the team.”

“When Donald Trump seeks to pursue a fossil fuel agenda and he breaks the law, whether by not following the administrative procedures law or otherwise not following the law, we can take him to court,” Bonta added.