We weren’t looking for this intersection, but here it is: ICE raids plow into wildfire management

The wildfire season in the Northwest is creating unprecedented challenges, with the intensity of climate change significantly contributing to ongoing fires, including the Bear Gulch fire on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. At a time when firefighting capacity is already stretched thin by tightening budgets as well as increasing wildfire frequency, the Trump administration’s zeal for aggressive immigration enforcement are creating further chaos. 

In a highly controversial move, federal authorities sent ICE agents to raid firefighting crews working to contain the Bear Gulch blaze, ultimately arresting and detaining two firefighters. Washington elected officials were quick to condemn the arrests, alongside community organizations such as Oregon For All, working to track anti-immigrant activities. Rep. Emily Randall was denied access to a Tacoma detention facility where the firefighters were being held. Some frontline firefighters working with crews contracted by the National Park Service are questioning whether their own management was complicit in prompting the raids.

Many workers on firefighting crews are Latino, and veteran firefighters fear that could make fire camps a target for immigration officials trying to meet deportation quotas. “If you’re a migrant worker and this starts happening, are you going to keep on doing that and risk getting picked up?” said Bobbie Scopa of advocacy group Grassroots Wildlands Firefighters. “If [immigration authorities] keep visiting fire camps, we will definitely have fewer contract crews.”

States push back against Trump’s war on affordable clean energy

Since the earliest weeks of the Trump administration, federal officials have made plain their intent to roll back the major clean energy accomplishments of the Biden years, including projects funded through the Inflation Reduction Act. The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, a project designed to expand badly needed charging infrastructure, was among the first they tried to renege on. Many states, including Oregon and Washington, sued and succeeded in blocking the administration’s actions, and those states are getting back on track to build needed EV charging.

But the administration was just getting started, in what Bill McKibben recently described as “all-out war on clean energy in the U.S., on behalf of [the government’s] patrons in the fossil fuel industry.” The administration continues to attack progress on transportation electrification. In many cases, the Trump administration is directly targeting state governments transitioning to clean electricity and clean buildings. On top of the other rollbacks and attacks, in April, President Trump signed a sweeping executive order to “stop the enforcement of State laws” on climate change and environmental justice. Since then, Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Department of Justice has already filed lawsuits challenging four states’ climate policies, and more are expected. 

In May, the Department of Energy announced deep cuts to state-administered energy grid resilience, efficiency and affordability programs. In response, Washington and 18 other states have sued the Trump administration over these efforts to halt clean energy progress. Trump’s energy policies “only threaten to make our power sources dirtier, less reliable, less efficient and more expensive,” said WA Attorney General Nick Brown. “This policy will ultimately hurt consumers in every state.”

Trump’s personal antipathy to wind energy and solar power is as well-established as it is inexplicable, considering renewables are the most affordable domestic energy sources being built. In August the Department of Transportation announced the cancellation of hundreds of millions of dollars in previously-approved funding for offshore wind projects in both Atlantic and Pacific states. Similarly, the Department of Energy has revoked a $716 million loan guarantee for an offshore wind project in New Jersey, and the Department of the Interior halted construction of a major offshore wind project in Connecticut that is nearly complete, and had been set to begin powering more than 350,000 homes in the region by early next year. Oregon is fighting back after the EPA announced it was cancelling $86 million in solar energy grants awarded last summer under the Solar For All program. 

Across the country, states are fast-tracking wind and solar projects before federal tax breaks expire. In Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis sounded the alarm in an Aug, 1 letter urging state authorities to “eliminate administrative barriers and bottlenecks for renewable projects.” A recent Seattle Times editorial made the same case. 

As detailed in a recent Canary Media report, the Trump administration’s arguments supporting its anti-renewables stance draw from a web of fossil fuel industry misinformation and deeply biased reports from a handful of right-wing think tanks.

With the federal government wholly committed to making war against clean energy, state leadership on climate is more important than ever–where it exists. On the other hand, states like South Dakota have toed a MAGA line opposing renewables, rejecting millions in clean energy subsidies when offered and passing laws to halt or severely limit clean energy development even when sought by residents. Iowa is also a red state, but one which is highly reliant on affordable wind energy. There, GOP Representative Marianne Miller-Meeks’ support for Trump’s anti-renewables agenda may imperil her seat in the upcoming elections.

Finally, the Trump war on clean energy is not confined to the US—the administration has begun threatening foreign governments with tariffs and other sanctions if they continue their own efforts to transition away from fossil fuels, as reported in the New York Times.

Wildfire, air quality and clean energy

For those living in the Northwest, “smoke season” has become a normal part of late summers. Increased wildfires from fossil fuel-driven global warming is hurting our lungs—more people are now exposed to unhealthy smog pollution more frequently, and more severely.

Climate Solutions’ Megan Larkin shares her family’s personal experience managing the health impacts of smoky summers in the Northwest. reflecting that clean, efficient power isn’t a luxury, but a necessity, for our health and our planet.

 As summers grow hotter, drier, and more wildfire-prone, communities are seeking out additional solutions for health, safety and comfort, like rural neighborhoods learning new wildfire resilience and mitigation strategies. Megan writes: “Highly efficient electric heat pumps are proving to be heroic multitaskers wherever they are installed—they provide both heating and cooling, and they filter the air for inside spaces.” 

One thing you can do

Climate scientists and health experts agree: carbon pollution is dangerous. Our governments at every level need to cut it faster to help slow the climate crisis. Yet, instead of rising to the challenge, the Trump administration is working to eliminate the federal government’s ability to fight climate change altogether. Our friends at Earthjustice are gathering signatures for a public comment period happening right now that ends next week—can you add your name today?

Tell the EPA not to ditch protections to our air and climate