In California, the Future Is Still Electric

No question about it: The next four years will darken U.S. action on climate change.

In a meeting yesterday with automakers where he promised to roll back environmental regulations, President Donald Trump declared, “I am, to a large extent, an environmentalist.” Here is that extent: The man himself has shown weak signs of backpedaling on his climate denialism. He has appointed a cabinet full of unapologetically pro-oil leaders: The former chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson, is the designated Secretary of the State. Scott Pruitt, the climate-denying Oklahoma attorney general who built his career suing the EPA over emissions-reduction standards and clean-energy targets, is now set to lead that very agency. And this week, the the administration leveled a blanket freeze on all EPA grants and contracts—as well as a media gag.