December 20, 2024 — Lawmakers in the U.S. Congress are scrambling to pass a continuing resolution that will keep the government funded through March after President-elect Donald Trump pressured House leaders to scrap a carefully negotiated deal.
Congress has already missed its mandated 30 September deadline for fiscal year 2025 appropriations, punting any disagreements on the budget until after the November elections.
December 19, 2024 — U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has taken a stand in favor of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) in the group’s contract dispute with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), which manages the ports along the U.S. East and Gulf coasts.
In mid-November, ILA leadership walked away from negotiations with USMX, refusing to compromise on automation, which USMX said must be integrated – in at least some ways – into port operations.
December 16, 2024 — Numerous East Coast states are counting on offshore wind projects to power tens of millions of homes and to help them transition to cleaner energy.
But putting wind turbines at sea requires the cooperation of a powerful landlord: the federal government. Soon, that government will be led by President-elect Donald Trump, who has frequently disparaged offshore wind and said he will “make sure that ends on Day 1.”
In the eight states that have passed legal mandates to reach certain amounts of offshore wind power, Trump’s second term threatens those timelines.
“This is absolutely going to create problems for how we’re going to meet our emissions goals and the energy needs for the state,” said Massachusetts state Sen. Jamie Eldridge, a Democrat who serves as vice chair on the legislative Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.
December 13, 2024 — The incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump is likely to bring big changes for one of the oldest sectors of the U.S. economy — seafood — and some in the industry believe the returning president will be more responsive to its needs.
Economic analysts paint a more complicated picture, as they fear Trump’s pending trade hostilities with major trading partners Canada and China could make an already pricy kind of protein more expensive to consumers. Conservationists also fear Trump’s emphasis on government deregulation could jeopardize fish stocks that are already in peril.
December 12, 2024 — The Trump administration is considering expanding floating fish farms in the Gulf of Mexico, a plan to boost domestic seafood production and reduce reliance on imports. However, this initiative faces significant opposition from environmental groups and fishing communities that worry about its potential impact on the Gulf’s delicate ecosystem.
The proposed aquaculture industry would establish floating farms for fish such as tuna and snapper, a concept already used in other countries like Norway and Japan. According to Verite News, proponents argue that offshore farms could provide a sustainable alternative to wild-caught fish, which are increasingly threatened by overfishing and habitat loss. They contend that by utilizing unused ocean space and reducing the carbon footprint of seafood transport, the fish farming industry could help meet growing global demand.
December 9, 2024 — Based on actions taken by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s administration during his first term in office, some organizations are voicing concerns that he might try to alter and potentially weaken the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) after he takes office in January – which will in turn impact seafood consumption.
SNAP is the largest federal program aimed at combating hunger in the U.S. and supports around 42 million beneficiaries.
December 4, 2024 — The incoming Trump administration and its emboldened congressional allies could soon reshape the Endangered Species Act without really touching the 1973 law.
The GOP-controlled Congress could rescind last-minute ESA-related actions. Appropriations bill riders and targeted legislation could block Biden-era moves.
Office budgets could be cut, if Congress goes along. By themselves, the Interior Department’s new political appointees could rewrite Biden administration regulations.
“I expect they will just have a knee-jerk reaction and pull back regs, shooting themselves in the foot on a policy that could be incredibly useful for infrastructure and agriculture,” said Timothy Male, executive director of the Environmental Policy Innovation Center.
Male cited as an example a Biden-era rule change that gives the Fish and Wildlife Service the power to require compensatory mitigation, also known as offsets, as part of the ESA consultations conducted with other federal agencies.
If history is any guide, a congressional rewrite of the law will remain a bridge too far.
The ESA regulations, by contrast, are a ripe target for every new administration.
The first Trump administration, starting in 2017, rewrote crucial ESA regulations that covered issues from how critical habitat is designated to how costs are taken into account when a species is proposed for listing as threatened or endangered.
This package of ESA revisions drew hundreds of thousands of mostly critical comments. Once implemented, they were entangled in litigation. Some, though not all, were subsequently withdrawn and rewritten in the Biden administration.
November 29, 2024 — With just over 50 days remaining until Donald Trump takes office once again, the president-elect has been beefing up his incoming administration with nominees and appointees that can advance the Republican’s oil and gas-focused energy agenda.
With a Republican majority in the House and Senate, Trump is not expected to face many hurdles from Congress in implementing his America-first energy goals. Though, that’s not to say he won’t face trouble from within the industry itself.
Amid a flurry of agency nominations, many environmentalists and climate activists have begun to question whether renewables can thrive under a new Trump administration. Though, at the same time, some clean advocates are confident there is space for clean energy to still grow.
As Trump’s transition team has begun to draft early Day One orders for his energy plan, many questions remain as to how it may be implemented. The Washington Examiner has taken a closer look at some of these queries, breaking down what exactly Trump’s energy agenda might look like in practice.
November 27, 2024 — U.S. President-elect Donald Trump proposed big hikes in tariffs on all goods from Canada, Mexico, and China on 25 November in a move that would affect one-fifth of all U.S. seafood imports by value.
Trump, posting on his Truth Social platform, said he would charge tariffs of 25 percent on all products from Mexico and Canada and 10 percent tariffs on goods from China – above any existing tariffs.
November 22, 2024 — Last summer’s structural failure of a single blade on a southern New England offshore turbine continues to reverberate, with new demands for quality assurances and the industry under pressure from incoming president Donald Trump’s promise “to make sure” offshore wind power “ends on day one.”
Allegations that testing data was falsified at LM Wind Power’s plant in Gaspé, Quebec, where the blade was manufactured, are being investigated as part of ongoing probes into the July 13 failure of a turbine blade at the Vineyard Wind project off Nantucket Island, according to reporting by Canadian news media outlets in late October.
Turbine manufacturer GE Vernova identified a “manufacturing deviation” in the blade built by LM Wind Power, causing breakage of the glued fiberglass laminate structure. On Oct. 24 Quebec news station Radio-Gaspésie and newspaper Gaspésie Nouvelles reported about 20 persons had been laid off or suspended from their jobs at LM Wind Power, including “directors, managers and supervisors,” the newspaper report said.
Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova have been removing and replacing blades on turbines, with little information released on the work progress. GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik has said quality testing on manufactured blades have shown similar defects on less than 10 percent of suspect blades, or “low single digits.”
Strazik says the company is “proactively reinforcing some blades, either in the factory or in the field, to improve their quality and ensure their useful life.” The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) is continuing its investigation into the blade failure.