Rather than endlessly re-tread the election or the last four years, I thought we needed a thread to discuss the early actions of the incoming administration. Of course, there hasn't been enough time for legislative proposals to make their way through Congress, so we'll have to be looking at the executive orders first.
There's a full list here, but I'll note down my thoughts on some of the bigger ones...
* Retraction of the intention to leave the WHO, and rejoin the Paris Climate Accord. This is no surprise, of course.
* Revokes approval for the Keystone pipeline, and places a temporary moratorium on drilling in the arctic refuge, pending legal review. The pipline decision is welcome, but why is the latter temporary? The entire purpose of wildlife refuges is to be federally protected. The order does, thankfully, also non-temporarily withdraw other areas from drilling (in the arctic sea & Bering sea).
* End direct fossil fuel subsidies. Ending these subsidies had been mentioned early on in the Biden campaign, but mention of this had been dropped when he published his platform online, leading to concern that he no longer intended to do so. Thankfully he has. But what's that word "direct" indicating? Is there such a thing as an indirect subsidy that could weasel through?
* Restores federal funding to "sanctuary" jurisdictions. I wasn't actually aware funding had been frozen.
* Directs the Attorney General not to renew contracts with any private prisons. Honestly... I did not expect this to happen, and am ecstatic it did. It would have been nice to see contracts with private prisons terminated early, but maybe that isn't legally possible to do that via executive order in the US...? Perhaps someone can enlighten me on that?
* End arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, pending legal review. Again, very welcome, but again... why is this pending review? This leaves the UK as Saudi Arabia's largest exporter of arms.
* Reverse Trump's ban on trans people serving in the military. Thank god; it was grotesque that the ban was implemented at all.
The executive orders signed so far, I must admit, were better than anticipated. Frustratingly, some of them-- such as the arctic drilling moratorium and arms sales-- are only in effect "pending legal review".
There's a full list here, but I'll note down my thoughts on some of the bigger ones...
* Retraction of the intention to leave the WHO, and rejoin the Paris Climate Accord. This is no surprise, of course.
* Revokes approval for the Keystone pipeline, and places a temporary moratorium on drilling in the arctic refuge, pending legal review. The pipline decision is welcome, but why is the latter temporary? The entire purpose of wildlife refuges is to be federally protected. The order does, thankfully, also non-temporarily withdraw other areas from drilling (in the arctic sea & Bering sea).
* End direct fossil fuel subsidies. Ending these subsidies had been mentioned early on in the Biden campaign, but mention of this had been dropped when he published his platform online, leading to concern that he no longer intended to do so. Thankfully he has. But what's that word "direct" indicating? Is there such a thing as an indirect subsidy that could weasel through?
* Restores federal funding to "sanctuary" jurisdictions. I wasn't actually aware funding had been frozen.
* Directs the Attorney General not to renew contracts with any private prisons. Honestly... I did not expect this to happen, and am ecstatic it did. It would have been nice to see contracts with private prisons terminated early, but maybe that isn't legally possible to do that via executive order in the US...? Perhaps someone can enlighten me on that?
* End arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, pending legal review. Again, very welcome, but again... why is this pending review? This leaves the UK as Saudi Arabia's largest exporter of arms.
* Reverse Trump's ban on trans people serving in the military. Thank god; it was grotesque that the ban was implemented at all.
The executive orders signed so far, I must admit, were better than anticipated. Frustratingly, some of them-- such as the arctic drilling moratorium and arms sales-- are only in effect "pending legal review".
Last edited: