PD Editorial: President Trump turns back the clock on climate policy

California and Washington, D.C. may be on a collision course on immigration. But when it comes to climate policy, the nation’s capital and its largest state are headed in opposite directions.

Only one is headed in the right direction - and it probably isn’t necessary to tell you which one.

What should offer some relief to Californians is this: the Trump administration’s retreat on clean energy, motor vehicle fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions is unlikely to undermine the historic gains being made by the Golden State and our West Coast neighbors.

Moreover, as Gov. Jerry Brown and others have made clear, opposition to Trump’s latest order, and to his whole head-in-the-sand approach to climate change, will be fierce.

“Yes, there is going to be a counter-movement,” Brown told the Los Angeles Times. “I have met with many heads of state, ambassadors. This is a growing movement. President Trump’s outrageous move will galvanize the contrary force. Things have been a bit tepid (in climate activism). But this conflict, this sharpening of the contradiction, will energize those who believe climate change is an existential threat.”

If recent polling is any indication, Brown has plenty of allies in this fight. A national poll by Quinnipiac University this month found that 73 percent of registered voters were “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about climate change, and 63 percent didn’t think Trump should “remove specific regulations intended to combat climate change.”

If the president succeeds in rolling back a decade’s worth of climate policies, the consequences for America and the rest of the world could be cataclysmic.

There is a scientific consensus that swift action is needed to address record-high global temperatures and their associate effects - rising seas, punishing droughts and widespread species extinction.

Fortunately, shifting course is far more complicated than staging a press conference or signing an executive order. Rewriting federal regulations takes time, and the process is subject to public input and judicial scrutiny. The U.S. is still bound by the Paris Accord, and most other industrial countries are increasingly committed to addressing climate change. A recent analysis from the World Economic Forum found a decoupling of economic growth and growth in energy consumption, even when fossil fuel prices have fallen.

Market conditions will conspire against Trump’s promises of more jobs for coal miners. Utilities are shifting rapidly to cleaner sources of fuel, especially natural gas. Solar and wind power have a growing share of the market, even in oil patch states such as Texas and Oklahoma. Ohio’s GOP governor vetoed an effort to scrap the state’s clean energy rules.

Here in California, greenhouse gas emissions from power plants already are below what would be required by 2030 if the federal rules stay, and the state has committed itself to cutting emissions even further.

As for motor vehicles, California air regulators voted last week to move ahead with stricter emissions requirements for cars and trucks, defying Trump’s promise to loosen fuel-efficiency standards.

Trump’s attempt to turn back the clock on clean air, clean energy and clean fuel is likely to fail. But it also could delay efforts to prevent a global catastrophe unless the public, the states and the president’s fellow Republicans stand up for the planet.