Alex Guillen

Washington, D.C.

Energy Reporter at POLITICO

Articles

EPA Chief Zeldin tangles with Senate Democrats at budget hearing

2 weeks ago | climatedepot.com | Marc Morano |Alex Guillen

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/05/21/congress/epa-chief-zeldin-tangles-with-senate-democrats-at-budget-hearing-00362632Excerpt: ‘You’ve wasted your entire five minutes’: EPA chief, Democrats spar at hearing – Lee Zeldin’s exchanges with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and others were some of the most hostile of his four budget hearings in recent weeks.
Appeals court questions EPA’s termination of $20B climate grants

2 weeks ago | politico.com | Alex Guillen

The panel’s other two members, Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, both of whom were named to the bench by President Donald Trump in his first term, expressed more skepticism about allowing recipients to spend money while litigation plays out. “If the money were to go out, and then the government were to ultimately prevail, the government would be out of these billions of dollars,” Rao said while trying to determine what is in the public interest.
E&E News: EPA rejects request to ban toxic chemical at oil refineries

3 weeks ago | subscriber.politicopro.com | Alex Guillen
Internal emails show Trump admin knew EPA climate aid freeze could expose government to billions in damages

1 month ago | politico.com | Alex Guillen

The government’s approach “is believed to have significant legal vulnerabilities,” veteran EPA career attorney Jim Payne wrote to 14 career staff and political appointees at the environmental agency, the Treasury Department and the Justice Department late on the night of March 9.
E&E News: Federal judge orders immediate thaw of climate, infrastructure funds

1 month ago | subscriber.politicopro.com | Alex Guillen
Federal judge orders immediate thaw of climate, infrastructure funds

1 month ago | politico.com | Alex Guillen

President Donald Trump does not have “unfettered power to hamstring in perpetuity” duly passed funding laws, the judge ruled. A federal judge has ordered a mass unfreezing of federal grants, including $1 million for urban forestry work in the Woonasquatucket River watershed in Rhode Island.
E&E News: EPA general counsel nominee pleaded guilty to impaired driving last year

1 month ago | subscriber.politicopro.com | Josh Siegel |Alex Guillen
Trump launches last-ditch crusade to rescue coal

2 months ago | politico.com | Josh Siegel |Catherine Morehouse |Alex Guillen

But even coal-friendly Republicans and executives say it won’t revive the industry to its former glory. President Donald Trump has been a vocal coal supporter since his initial 2016 presidential campaign. | Dominick Reuter/AFP via Getty Images President Donald Trump announced sweeping executive orders on Tuesday that aim to achieve a goal that has long seemed implausible — bringing a national renaissance for coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel.
Judge hammers EPA over lack of proof of wrongdoing in terminating $20B in climate grants

2 months ago | politico.com | Alex Guillen

The nonprofit recipients of $14 billion in grants issued by the Biden administration under the Inflation Reduction Act’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund have argued that EPA’s March 11 termination was pretextual and came about not because of any wrongdoing, but because the Trump administration merely does not like the climate program.
Judge slams EPA’s climate grant cancellations: ‘You have to have some kind of evidence’

2 months ago | politico.com | Alex Guillen

“Can you proffer any evidence that [the grant] was illegal, or evidence of abuse or fraud or bribery — that any of that was improperly or unlawfully done, other than the fact that Mr. Zeldin doesn’t like it?” asked Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.