KJS 2.26 DC…no comment.

Few years ago, from the campaign trail, we knew “drill baby drill” was theater for fifteen fossil fuel billionaires. If you are young, or work in the field, you get angry knowing renewables were cheaper, faster, and already winning. But they say it anyway. It hasn’t meant anything for a few years now because the market moved on.

But now Trump dismantled the EPA’s endangerment finding—the legal foundation for federal climate regulation since 2009. Does it matter? Should we get mad?

U.S. emissions are going to keep falling anyway.

Not because of him. Despite him.

Numbers Don’t Lie

(According to Rhodium Group modeling)

• With climate regulations: Emissions drop 32-44% below 2005 levels by 2035
• With Trump’s rollback: Emissions still drop 26-35%

>> Even if Trump succeeds in torching federal climate policy, emissions decline substantially.

Why? Because the energy transition isn’t built on regulation anymore. It’s built on economics.

The Market Already Left

Renewables are now cheaper than coal. Natural gas is cleaner and more profitable. AI data centers aren’t building coal plants—they’re signing contracts for solar and wind. The clean energy generation is already being driving, by corporate, without government support.

Imagine what we could do when working together?

Anyway, companies aren’t going green because government told them to. They’re going green because it makes money.

Who Is This For?

Count Trump’s audience: What are we talking about here? Maybe 15 aging fossil fuel executives who spent decades delaying the inevitable…exclamation point.

Meanwhile:

• Young people overwhelmingly support climate action
• Corporations are locked into clean energy contracts
• Insurance companies are pricing climate risk
• The global market moved on

Trump torched the EPA just to appeal to donors being out-competed by the future.

Damage Is Symbolic

Yes, repealing the endangerment finding is seismic. It signals U.S. climate leadership is dead. Which we knew.

It does prove that American commitments expire every four years.

But again, here’s the kicker: The endangerment finding has barely reduced emissions since 2009.

Even a former EPA officials, now corporate lobbyists, admit that it has done very little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Its real power was psychological—signaling regulation was coming. That shaped corporate decisions in ways you can’t reverse.

Bottom Line

Decades of policy and market shifts pushed the economy toward clean energy. Trump’s rollback can’t turn it around.

Not because he’s incompetent (that helps). Because the market already decided.

Renewables are cheaper. Storage is scaling. Gas beats coal. AI needs reliable power, and coal can’t deliver.

Trump can dismantle the EPA. He can perform for his fifteen friends.

Emissions will keep falling anyway.

Dear Young People: He’s Irrelevant

Trump’s words matter less every day because his actions can’t change economics. You don’t need his permission to build the future. You don’t need federal policy anymore to make solar cheaper than coal.

The transition is happening because it works better.

Don’t get mad, get even. Let him pretend he’s in charge. And keep building.