EJ TransitionWatch

Environmental Journalism TransitionWatch is a new, limited-run weekly report from SEJournal, published through Inauguration Day 2025. It will track the incoming Trump administration as it prepares to take power and reshape U.S. environmental and energy policy. The EJ TransitionWatch main page will spotlight other related stories and resources, along with the latest Trump-environment news from our EJToday headline service. Check back regularly!

READ: Backgrounder: What a Trump 2.0 would mean for the environment | Voices of Environmental Justice: Justice40 program hangs in balance | WatchDog Opinion: Will weather data would be withheld, Trump on press freedom & Trump on criminalization of journalism | Plus, SEJ’s Interim President Bobby Magill's thoughts on the challenge ahead.

Go to Trump-related headlines

Public

December 18, 2024

Climate Action Looks First To Go Under New Administration

President-elect Donald Trump has promised to pull the United States out of the Paris climate treaty and to maximize U.S. fossil fuel production. And as the transition to his incoming administration unfolds, he has named a cabinet replete with climate action skeptics. But will all that stop the transition to cleaner power? The latest EJ TransitionWatch has an assessment.

VIEW ARTICLE

December 11, 2024

Trump’s Public Health Agency Picks, Looking Peaked?

Public health is an environmental story (think links between infectious disease and climate change, for example). So Trump administration nominees to head leading U.S. public health agencies — including vaccine skeptics, COVID-19 contrarians and physicians with little public health experience — are a story for environmental journalists to watch closely. The latest EJ TransitionWatch helps with a rundown of five top picks. Plus, the latest health headlines from EJ Today.

VIEW ARTICLE

December 4, 2024

EPA Science Integrity Threatened by House Republicans

The closest thing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has to a press policy is actually its scientific integrity policy. But as WatchDog Opinion writer Joseph Davis writes in the latest EJ TransitionWatch, the EPA’s scientific integrity policy is under direct attack by a powerful congressman. What’s behind the attack? And could the EPA’s science be under assault next?

VIEW ARTICLE

November 27, 2024

Will Trump ‘Disappear’ Environment, Climate Data?

Might the incoming Trump administration attempt to blot out any data that undermines his environmental policies, especially around global warming? Many recall, for instance, the 2017 disappearing of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s informative climate change web pages. The new EJ TransitionWatch column explores the concern and offers a heartening assessment of the prospects of preserving these archives of essential information.

VIEW ARTICLE

November 20, 2024

Is Fluoride Facing Phaseout in Your Community’s Drinking Water?

Fluoridated drinking water has helped limit tooth decay in the United States for decades. But that could come to an end in the Trump administration, if fluoride nonfan Robert F. Kennedy Jr., slated to head Health and Human Services, has his way. In the first installment of SEJournal’s new weekly EJ TransitionWatch column, we examine the challenge to this public health success story. Plus, questions to ask and resources for your reporting.

VIEW ARTICLE