January 20, 2021 — President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday will rejoin the Paris agreement, revoke a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and take a slew of other environmental actions after he’s sworn in as president.
Biden plans to sign two executive orders among the 15 he will issue on his first day in office that will have ramifications for the environment as well as numerous rollbacks put in place by the Trump administration.
While one will rejoin the global climate agreement, another directs agencies across government to reconsider a number of actions taken under the previous administration, sending along a nine-page hit list of Trump era actions likely to be reversed under the Biden administration.
iden has pledged to rejoin the Paris climate accord on his first day in office, part of his commitment to get the U.S. on a path to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
And in his second order he aims to halt a number of oil and gas activities, revoking the Keystone XL pipeline set to cross the border with Canada and placing a temporary moratorium on oil and gas leasing activities at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The action stops short of Biden’s ultimate goal of halting all new fossil fuel leasing on federal lands and in federal waters, though it’s an action he has pledged his administration will take.
The order also directs agencies to review boundaries for the Grand Staircase-Escalante, Bears Ears and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.
Trump shrunk the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments over objections from environmentalists as well as Native Americans, who argued the lands were sacred to their tribes.
In the case of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, Trump lifted protection of the area in a bid to open it to more commercial fishing.
The Wednesday action will also direct agencies to review standards for vehicles, appliances and buildings.