Death by Rescission: The Silent Erasure of America’s Climate Programs
Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans have passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and buried deep this new law is a series of quiet but devastating moves that will gut the country’s climate agenda.
You won’t see these provisions featured on the evening news—but you’ll feel them in your lungs, your energy bills, and your children’s classrooms.
These provisions, tucked into Sections 60002 through 60008, don’t just cut funding—they erase entire programs designed to protect air quality, curb emissions, and support clean energy innovation.
This is not reform. It’s repeal.
What They Just Killed
1. The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund
This program was the beating heart of Biden’s climate finance strategy. It helped communities:
Build clean energy projects
Cut carbon pollution
Fund “green banks” and job creation
It was designed to serve underserved and overburdened communities.
Trump’s and the Republicans’ new law kills it entirely and takes back the money.
2. Diesel Pollution Cleanup
Funding that helped clean up diesel engines in trucks, buses, and equipment—especially in cities and working-class neighborhoods—is now gone.
Breathing diesel fumes contributes to asthma, heart disease, and cancer. But this law prioritizes polluters over people.
3. Clean Air at Schools
Money that was supposed to improve air quality in schools—like upgrading ventilation or installing air filters—is rescinded.
Our kids will be paying the price for this rollback.
4. Low Emissions Electricity Program
This program helped the U.S. shift toward clean power sources like solar, wind, and nuclear.
It’s now defunded—leaving utilities with fewer tools to modernize the grid or reduce emissions.
Modernizing the electrical grid is critically important—for reliability, resilience, climate adaptation, and national security. Utility companies need to modernize the grid now more than ever because the infrastructure is aging and breaking down. The U.S. power grid was built more than seventy years ago, and it shows. The blackouts and equipment failures show the system isn’t built to support today’s energy demands.
With climate change fueling stronger storms, heatwaves, wildfires, and deep freezes, we need a modernized grid with smart sensors, underground lines, and better regional coordination to reduce outages and speed up recovery. These cuts make modernization less likely.
The growth in cybersecurity and sabotage attacks further underscores the need to protect critical infrastructure. It’s a national security issue. The cuts make us less safe.
5. Cleaner Fuel Standards & HFC Phase-Out
The new law also slashes funds to:
Improve the quality of fuels (e.g., blending biofuels with gas)
Enforce cleaner refrigerant rules under the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act, which curbs super-polluting gases used in AC and refrigeration
These gases trap thousands of times more heat than CO₂. But hey—cooling profits matter more than a heating planet.
The Real Danger: Quiet Reversals
These changes weren’t voted on by the public. They weren’t debated on the news. They were buried in a bill—and signed with a smile.
This isn’t just neglect. It’s intentional sabotage of climate progress, designed to happen quietly, so you don’t notice until it’s too late.
What You Can Do
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Hold the representatives who voted for this bill accountable
Support candidates who understand the climate crisis