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Whoopi Goldberg discusses Donald Trump's first week in office on ABC's 'The View,' on Jan. 25, 2017. (Screenshot from ABC recording)

The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg claimed recently that unlike President Donald Trump, former President Barack Obama waited before issuing executive actions.

After a striking comment from co-host Joy Behar, who hypothesized Trump was passing executive actions quickly because he was afraid hed be impeached, another co-host, Jedediah Bila, countered Behars point saying "all presidents do this." Goldberg offered an instant fact-check.

"I think the difference in what you're saying in terms of executive action is at least it took President Obama, at least a couple of months in, and this one (Trump) has came in and he said, We're doing this and this, and this. And I understand that," Goldberg said in a Jan. 25 segment of the View.

Goldberg repeated this idea again in response to Bila, who criticized Obama for taking executive actions at the start of his presidency when he could have passed laws through a Democratic Congress.

"But (Obama) didnt do executive orders in the beginning," Goldberg said.

Executive orders are the most well-known kind of presidential action, and have a long tradition in presidential history back to the days of George Washington. In fact, every president except for William Harrison (who died a month into office) has issued at least one executive order.

This specific presidential action directs the federal government and bureaucracies and carries the power of the law. However, executive orders can be revoked or amended by future presidents.

We wanted to settle the matter: Did Obama, unlike Trump, wait to take executive action? Long story short is that he didnt, and experts said executive actions are common among new presidents.

Obama didnt waste much time before issuing executive orders after his inauguration.

Obama signed his first executive order (13489) about presidential records on Jan. 21, 2009, a day after the inauguration. This executive order required the Archivist of the United States notify both the incumbent president and the former president of any records the archivist feels may trigger executive privilege. (Executive privilege refers to the presidents power to withhold information from the public.)

Over the next 10 days, Obama had signed nine executive orders. By the end of his first month, the number was 16.

Heres how Obama compared to Trump: As of Jan. 26, Trump had signed four executive orders aimed at achieving various campaign promises. By this time, Obama had issued five executive orders.

Obama first aimed to limit access to presidential records, while another ordered the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba within one year.

That action received backlash from Republicans. As did Obamas corresponding order to look for lawful alternatives to the detention of captives in the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

Month

Executive orders signed by Obama

January 2009 (starting on Jan. 21)

9

February 2009

7

March 2009

2

April 2009

1

Source: https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/2009-obama.html

Executive action has a broad definition, but just in terms of one type of executive orders, Goldbergs claim is incorrect.

That said, its hard to say whether Trumps first actions as president are more significant for policy than Obamas.

Executive orders arent the only action presidents can take, making it difficult to compare Obamas use of unilateral actions to Trumps so far.

Through "executive actions," presidents can also pardon criminals, amend the internal structure of the executive branch, issue signing statements, write letters and memoranda, and more.

"The number of orders is often misleading, and the terminology can be confusing both presidents issued important orders that were not Executive Orders with numbers attached," said John T. Woolley, an American politics professor at University of California, Santa Barbara.

William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that both Trump and Obama took controversial actions at the start.

"The early Trump executive actions have been on hot button issues, so they aroused a lot of early controversy, but we cant forget how controversial presidential actions of the past have been," he said.

Galston was specifically referring to the U.S. Treasurys decision to bail out the auto industry during Obamas first year. When Obama took office, he created a task force with a mandate to determine the fate of GM and Chrysler.

He added that is not unlikely for presidents to take executive actions at first, especially when theres a change in party, adding that presidents want to reverse actions of the previous administration.

For example, Trump issued a presidential memorandum on Jan. 23 that banned all foreign nongovernmental organizations from receiving U.S. funds from performing or promoting abortion, reversing an Obama action.

The recession gripping the country when Obama took office also spurred the former president to move with more urgent executive action, Galston said.

Our ruling

Goldberg said Obama waited "at least a couple of months" to issue executive actions. Thats not correct; Obama issued an executive order on his first day in office, and 16 with in his first month.

Although its hard to compare one presidents actions to the other, experts said Trump and Obama both issued important orders in the beginning of their presidency, which is common practice.

We rate this statement Pants on Fire.

Continue reading here:
Whoopi Goldberg wrongly says Obama waited 'at least a couple of months' to issue executive actions - PolitiFact

New York Times

What Trump Can and Can't Do to Dismantle Obama's Climate Rules New York Times WASHINGTON President Trump campaigned on sweeping promises to eliminate former President Barack Obama's major environmental regulations and get rid of the Environmental Protection Agency. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump offered a down payment on ... The EPA just delayed 30 environmental regulations created under Obama - here's what that meansBusiness Insider Scientist Plan March Against Trump After Ignoring Obama's Science Problems For 8 YearsDaily Caller all 890 news articles »

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What Trump Can and Can't Do to Dismantle Obama's Climate Rules - New York Times

Jan Jordan, Newser staff Published 9:35 a.m. ET Jan. 26, 2017 | Updated 12 hours ago

Demarlon Thomas, 31, was killed while transitioning out of prison in Saginaw, Mich., after having his sentence commuted by Obama. USA TODAY

Michigan State Police detectives measure tire tracks on Tuesday, Jan 24, 2017, near the scene of the shooting of Demarlon Thomas, 31, in Saginaw the previous evening.(Photo: Jeff Schrier, AP)

(NEWSER)A former gang member saw his prison sentence commuted by President Obama in November only to be killed almost exactly two months later.

Demarlon Thomas, 31, was transitioning out of the federal prison system in a Saginaw, Mich., halfway house after having his sentence commuted Nov. 22.

Two masked gunmen brandishing assault-style weapons sought out and killed Thomas, a former member of Saginaws Sunny Side Gang, at that halfway house Monday night, reportsMLive. "They were looking for this person," a Michigan State Police officer says, describing the shooting as execution-style.

One gunman shot Thomas numerous times, while the other held 23 others at gunpoint; ultimately, no one else was injured.

"I think it was connected one way or another to the gang he was from or a rival gang," the officer tellsMichigan Radio. The suspects are still at large.

Thomas had been sentenced to 19 years in prison in 2008 for distributing cocaine after a federal investigation that authorities thought had put an end to the Sunny Side Gang.

Thanks to Obama commuting his sentence, he had been scheduled to go free in March, about eight years earlier than his original release date.

"He was just happy to ... have a second chance at life," a friend of Thomas tellsMLive.

(This was far from the most high-profile sentencecommuted by Obama.)

This story originally appeared onNewser:

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Obama frees him and he is killed execution-style - USA TODAY

Obama hoped she and other center-right leaders could act as a moderating and sobering force on the incoming US President and pressed her to remain in close contact with Trump as he assumed the presidency, the officials said. Obama's conversations with May included during their final in-person meeting in Berlin in November.

May and Trump are scheduled to meet Friday at the White House, and both world leaders are expected to address the congressional Republicans' retreat in Philadelphia on Thursday.

May was among the first leaders to congratulate Trump on his upset win in November, and she spoke with Trump shortly after he was inaugurated.

Obama also made the request of Australia's Malcolm Turnbull during a meeting on the sidelines of his final APEC meeting in Peru.

Obama was wary of Trump's close ties to the UKIP leader Nigel Farage and believed May could insert herself into that relationship to prevent Trump from getting US-UK advice from someone Obama viewed as disreputable, the officials said.

He hoped that conversations with May, and with other world leaders, might instill in Trump a better sense of how weighty a job the presidency is. Trump, he felt, had a very limited understanding of that.

Due for talks at the White House on Friday, May is coming armed with gifts for the new US president, according to the British Embassy in Washington. She'll deliver her counterpart a basket laden with produce from Chequers, the Prime Minister's Buckinghamshire estate, including "apple juice, damson jam, and marmalade, as well as Bake well tarts and cranberry and white chocolate shorties."

The Embassy said May would also take a moment to appreciate a bust of Winston Churchill that Trump has positioned in the Oval Office.

The rest is here:
Obama's advice to British PM: Befriend Donald Trump - CNN International

Rick Moore, a dairy farmer in Canton, N.Y., has a solar thermal array to heat water he uses to spray down milking equipment. David Sommerstein/North Country Public Radio hide caption

Rick Moore, a dairy farmer in Canton, N.Y., has a solar thermal array to heat water he uses to spray down milking equipment.

There have been no executive orders yet to undo President Barack Obama's signature climate plan, but many officials and environmental groups consider it as good as dead. The Clean Power Plan is on hold while a legal battle plays out, and even if an appeals court upholds it a decision could come any day the Trump administration is likely to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The state of New York decided to forge ahead anyway. Like a number of other mostly liberal states, it is continuing with efforts to drive down the carbon emissions that drive climate change.

In the upstate village of Canton, dairy farmer Rick Moore shows off the solar thermal array tucked next to his slouching red barn. It's a cloudy, slushy day, but "you still get rays that still help heat it up," Moore says.

The system warms the water that runs through the solar tubes. Moore then uses the water to spray down his milking equipment. He says it will save him $1,000 a year, and help reduce the carbon emissions he says are changing the climate here.

"We had winters when I first started, that you had three feet of snow and cold for two weeks at a time," he says. "You're not seeing that nowadays."

New York state paid for nearly the entire system. It sees Moore as a tiny piece of a puzzle that adds up to getting half of the state's power from renewables by 2030, even without a federal mandate.

The Clean Power Plan would have required energy plants to cut their carbon emissions, leaving it up to each state to figure out how to reach a specific reduction target. The plan was supposed to be the main way the U.S. carried out its commitment under the historic Paris climate deal. But after it was announced in 2015, about two dozen mostly conservative states sued the Obama administration to block it.

Still, New York has not only stuck with its own plan to reduce carbon pollution, it's now doubling down on its goal.

"We are not going to stop until we reach 100 percent renewable because that's what a sustainable New York is really all about," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said earlier this month.

New York is pouring billions into everything from solar to smart power grids, electric car charging stations to huge offshore wind farms. In fact, Cuomo just announced the nation's largest offshore wind project. The state already gets almost 25 percent of its power from renewables, mostly from hydropower dams. Critics say the next 25 percent is the big lift.

Cheap natural gas has driven down power prices. So much, says Gavin Donohue of the Independent Power Producers of New York, that existing renewables, like wind, hydro and biomass, need more state help to stay in business.

"What's guiding all of our policy development here in New York is not cost, not efficiencies, not reliability, but what gets us to some magical CO2 number to show that we're a national leader," he says.

Another complication could be Cuomo's recent announcement to shut down the Indian Point nuclear plant, near New York City. But the state says it plans to replace that with another kind of carbon-free power, including more wind farms. It also plans to add transmission lines to carry hydropower from Quebec.

North Dakota looks to clean up coal

North Dakota led the legal challenge against Obama's Clean Power Plan, and many there were happy to see it put on hold. The state gets three-quarters of its electricity from thousands of tons of lignite coal, among the most polluting sources of energy. For that reason, the climate plan would have required bigger emissions cuts than almost any other state, some 45 percent.

"North Dakota had to be two-thirds of that way by 2022," says Randy Christmann with the North Dakota Public Service Commission. "That's only a few years away and there's no way we were getting there."

The state would likely have had to add hundreds of wind turbines and shut down coal mines and plants.

Jason Bohrer, with North Dakota's lignite coal trade group, says it's great the Clean Power Plan is likely gone with the new administration. But "Donald Trump is not the cure-all for the coal industry," he says. "This doesn't fix everything. It just gives us the opportunity to provide solutions."

A dragline at the Center Mine in North Dakota removes dirt to expose layers of lignite coal. The coal is mined and transported to a power plant just a few miles away, where it's burned to generate electricity. Amy Sisk/Inside Energy hide caption

A dragline at the Center Mine in North Dakota removes dirt to expose layers of lignite coal. The coal is mined and transported to a power plant just a few miles away, where it's burned to generate electricity.

Bohrer says public demand and market forces are fueling a boom in cleaner energy. Cheap wind power has grown into North Dakota's second-biggest electricity source. So even though the pressure's off to curb emissions, the state is looking to clean up coal as a way to save jobs.

The state and the coal industry have sunk millions into developing a coal plant that reuses the carbon dioxide it creates. The aim is zero emissions.

If it works, Dave Glatt with the state health department thinks this could bring the state close to that ambitious 45 percent reduction target.

"We may not hit it necessarily on the exact timelines that the Clean Power Plan was looking at," he says. "But I do think that that's something we should look at. Can we achieve that or even go beyond that?"

This year, North Dakota will craft its own energy plan, hoping coal and renewables can co-exist.

Paris Climate deal not enough

It's not clear if market forces can get the U.S. all the way to its goals under the Paris climate deal. They may take a long time to play out, and climate scientists say a large-scale shift to clean energy needs to happen urgently. Still, few energy experts can imagine building another U.S. coal plant. Operators must plan decades into the future, they say, and even if the Trump administration won't tackle carbon emissions, a future president likely will.

Obama's Clean Power Plan was also an easy lift for some, and many states are already close to meeting their goals.

But globally, the Paris climate deal is not nearly enough. The U.S. like other countries would have to do much more to keep carbon emissions below the point where scientists say they will have disastrous consequences.

So far, there's nothing to suggest the Trump administration plans to make that extra push.

David Sommerstein is a reporter for North Country Public Radio. Amy Sisk reports for Inside Energy, a public media collaboration focused on America's energy issues.

Link:
As Obama Clean Power Plan Fades, States Craft Strategies To Move Beyond It - NPR