On January 31, 2025, Sean Duffy, the new head of the Department of Transportation (DOT), ordered staff to “identify and eliminate” initiatives connected to climate change, racial and gender identity, DEI, and environmental justice that had been implemented under former President Biden. The order includes a mandatory purge of all “orders, directives, rules, regulations, notices, guidance documents, funding agreements, programs, and policy statements” that relate to these topics in any way.
Duffy also ordered staff to ignore the social cost of carbon, or the potential damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions in decision-making, and to focus instead on “rigorous economic analysis and positive cost-benefit calculations.” Considering the impacts of climate change “was integrated throughout the department, and was necessary for departmental operations,” according to Gretchen Goldman, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists and former DOT director of climate change research and technology under the Biden administration.