USSC Briefing Room | Trump 2.0: Energy and climate change

26 August 2025

USSC Non-Resident Fellow Lachlan Carey and Director of Research Jared Mondschein discuss climate and energy policy under Trump 2.0.

Podcast by

Lachlan Carey

Non-Resident FellowUnited States Studies Centre

Jared Mondschein

Director of ResearchUnited States Studies Centre

Legislation is hard to pass in the United States, but tends to have a longer-lasting impact than executive orders, which can be easily overturned. President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act put climate change at the forefront of his legislative agenda. Now, with President Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, we see the first major legislative action of Trump 2.0, particularly related to climate change and energy.

How “Trump proof” was Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act? How does the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act change the dial on energy and climate policy? What will be the lasting energy legacy of Trump 2.0?

Director of Research Jared Mondschein sat down with USSC Non-Resident Fellow Lachlan Carey to discuss these issues. Lachlan is a manger at RMI, where he leads work on US regional economic development through clean energy investment. He is also the author of the Trump 2.0 chapter “Climate and energy policies: Executing the Inflation Reduction Act.”