The Heritage Foundation has influenced the policies of Republican presidents for decades, from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump. Now the powerful conservative think tank is gearing up to reshape how the U.S. government runs, which could have major consequences for reducing planet-warming pollution. The blueprint for this transformation under a possible second Trump administration is called Project 2025, a sprawling policy road map with contributions from more than 100 conservative organizations. My colleague Scott Waldman has spent the better part of the year digging through Project 2025 to understand how it would shift U.S. energy and climate priorities and policies. What Scott found, he told me in an interview today, were "many radical reinventions about the way the government would handle greenhouse gas emissions and global warming." “To sum it up, what it's trying to do on climate and energy is basically take the government totally away from any sort of regulation and to use the tools of the government to actually help fossil fuel companies increase their output,” he said. For example, Project 2025 would replace the president’s clean energy adviser — a position now occupied by John Podesta — with an aide whose efforts would include revoking climate regulations and weakening permitting requirements for fossil fuel companies. Under the plan, agencies that conduct climate research would be downsized. The U.S. military would be barred from considering climate science when planning for national security threats. And international aid that helps poorer countries respond to climate impacts would instead be used to boost coal, oil and gas. Certain agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, would be downsized, while border security personnel would increase. The 920-page blueprint aims to cut “every regulation or anything, including the federal science itself, that goes toward fighting climate change and reducing U.S. emissions,” Scott said. Or, as the plan puts it: “The Biden Administration’s climate fanaticism will need a whole-of-government unwinding.” The Trump campaign has stated that all its policy ideas would come from the former president and described Project 2025 as suggestions from allies. But many of the authors of the blueprint are former Trump officials, and the Heritage Foundation has spent the past year-plus recruiting people to implement the plans within the administration, Scott said. “So they don't just have a long, sprawling policy document,” he said, “they also have a growing list of staff who are being tested to see if they are loyal to Trump and if they are willing to administer this in his potential administration.” While groups like Heritage have put forward conservative policy proposals in the past, Scott said Project 2025 is distinct in that it’s so comprehensive and far-reaching. “It has so many groups contributing to it. It's the whole conservative policy movement gathered together,” he said.
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