EJ TransitionWatch

Environmental Journalism TransitionWatch was a limited-run weekly report from SEJournal, published from shortly after Election Day 2024 through Inauguration Day 2025 and beyond. It tracked the incoming Trump administration as it prepared to take power and began to reshape U.S. environmental and energy policy. The EJ TransitionWatch main page spotlighted other related stories and resources, along with the latest Trump-environment news from our EJToday headline service.

READ: Backgrounder: What a Trump 2.0 would mean for the environment | Voices of Environmental Justice: Justice40 program hangs in balance | WatchDog Opinion: Will weather data would be withheld, Trump on press freedom & Trump on criminalization of journalism | Plus, SEJ’s Interim President Bobby Magill's thoughts on the challenge ahead.

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February 5, 2025

Energy-Dominance Exponent Coasts Into Interior

The newly installed Interior Department head, who will manage most federally owned U.S. lands and billions of acres of the continental shelf, hails from a top fossil fuel-producing state and has close oil industry ties, reports the new EJ TransitionWatch. What former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum had to say at his Senate confirmation about U.S. “energy dominance.” Plus, one surprising source of support.

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January 29, 2025

EPA Nominee Heads for Approval, Despite Inexperience

Former Congressman Lee Zeldin, the Trump administration nominee to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has scant expertise in the field and little appeal to environmental groups. But at a Senate hearing earlier this month, the Trump loyalist aimed to score points by confirming the existence of climate change and deflating rumors of an agency move out of the Capital. The latest EJ TransitionWatch takes a look at Zeldin's prospects.

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January 22, 2025

‘One Big, Beautiful Bill’ Could Undo Biden’s Climate Progress

A single “reconciliation” bill, promised by House Speaker Mike Johnson in the first 100 days of the new Congress, could wipe out the outgoing administration’s climate ambitions. EJ TransitionWatch explains the budget process and spotlights a half dozen energy and environment provisions — affecting offshore drilling, methane emissions, electric vehicle incentives and more — that could be in the measure if the Trump administration gets its way.

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January 15, 2025

What Biden Rules Could Congress Unplug With Review Act?

As the Biden White House rushes to enact environment and energy policy before Inauguration Day, an obscure law leaves room for the incoming administration to claw them back. At risk: strengthened emissions standards for vehicles and power, tougher energy efficiency standards and plans to replace lead pipes. The latest EJ TransitionWatch explains how the reversal works — and why it might not.

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January 8, 2025

What Will a Second Trump Term Mean for Environmental Justice?

An incoming Trump administration hostile to the very idea of environmental justice likely means the rollback of numerous policies and regulations designed to protect disadvantaged communities, cuts to an important “whole-of-government” initiative and downsizing of key federal environmental justice offices. The latest EJ TransitionWatch examines what’s at stake. And for more, see our Topics on the Beat page on environmental justice.

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December 18, 2024

Climate Action Looks First To Go Under New Administration

President-elect Donald Trump has promised to pull the United States out of the Paris climate treaty and to maximize U.S. fossil fuel production. And as the transition to his incoming administration unfolds, he has named a cabinet replete with climate action skeptics. But will all that stop the transition to cleaner power? The latest EJ TransitionWatch has an assessment.

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December 11, 2024

Trump’s Public Health Agency Picks, Looking Peaked?

Public health is an environmental story (think links between infectious disease and climate change, for example). So Trump administration nominees to head leading U.S. public health agencies — including vaccine skeptics, COVID-19 contrarians and physicians with little public health experience — are a story for environmental journalists to watch closely. The latest EJ TransitionWatch helps with a rundown of five top picks. Plus, the latest health headlines from EJ Today.

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December 4, 2024

EPA Science Integrity Threatened by House Republicans

The closest thing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has to a press policy is actually its scientific integrity policy. But as WatchDog Opinion writer Joseph Davis writes in the latest EJ TransitionWatch, the EPA’s scientific integrity policy is under direct attack by a powerful congressman. What’s behind the attack? And could the EPA’s science be under assault next?

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November 27, 2024

Will Trump ‘Disappear’ Environment, Climate Data?

Might the incoming Trump administration attempt to blot out any data that undermines his environmental policies, especially around global warming? Many recall, for instance, the 2017 disappearing of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s informative climate change web pages. The new EJ TransitionWatch column explores the concern and offers a heartening assessment of the prospects of preserving these archives of essential information.

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November 20, 2024

Is Fluoride Facing Phaseout in Your Community’s Drinking Water?

Fluoridated drinking water has helped limit tooth decay in the United States for decades. But that could come to an end in the Trump administration, if fluoride nonfan Robert F. Kennedy Jr., slated to head Health and Human Services, has his way. In the first installment of SEJournal’s new weekly EJ TransitionWatch column, we examine the challenge to this public health success story. Plus, questions to ask and resources for your reporting.

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