“Drill, baby, drill” was Donald Trump’s campaign pledge – and he’s following through with a proposal to expand fossil fuel production, which environmentalists say would have devastating consequences.

The Trump administration has tabled a plan to open federal waters off the coasts of California, Florida, and Alaska to oil and gas drilling for the first time in decades – including areas that have never been touched.

A total of one billion acres of water would be offered for lease under the proposal. That’s equivalent to more than half the total land mass of the US.

While the rest of the Western world is striving to move away from fossil fuels, the US appears to be gravitating back towards them, with the administration describing climate change as a “hoax,” “a scam,” and a “con job”.

In Huntington Beach – a coastal community in California that calls itself “Surf City USA” – a huge oil spill in 2021 shut down a miles-long stretch of the coastline, killing wildlife and soiling the sand.

From the beach, where surfers lay out alongside tourists and dog walkers, you can see Platform Esther, a hulking oil rig built in 1965 that ceased production in August this year. Sea lions hug the metal pillars on the rig and dozens of birds perch on the platform.

‘What we have here is irreplaceable’

Pete Stauffer, ocean protection manager at the Surfrider Foundation, said: “Here in California, we depend on a clean and healthy coastal environment – whether it’s coastal tourism, whether it’s fisheries, or local businesses and jobs.

“All these things are tied to what we have here, which is really an outstanding marine ecosystem.

“No disrespect to Mickey Mouse, but you can build another theme park. What we have here is irreplaceable. Why would you put that at risk?”

As a state, California views itself as a leader on climate action. A massive spill off the coast of Santa Barbara sparked the modern environmental movement.

‘We need as much oil as possible’

But the Trump administration says more oil drilling will help make the country energy independent, bringing new jobs and reducing petrol prices. That messaging has resonated with some here.

Johnny Long is a surfer who lives in Huntington Beach. “Drill, baby, drill,” he says, when I ask about Trump’s plans for more offshore drilling. “We need as much oil as possible. It’s right below us. We need to take it and extract it and bring the gas prices down, it’s absolutely fantastic.”

I ask about concerns that it will be detrimental to the local environment and beyond.

“I’d say phoeey on that,” Johnny responds. “It’s ridiculous. Climate change is a hoax.”

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But others vehemently disagree – including Linda from nearby Seal Beach: “It’s so bad for the environment. It’s already bad enough, you know, and they’re gonna drill, and what happens when they drill? They always have accidents because people are human and accidents happen.

“Trump and his goonies don’t care about the environment, all they care about is money.”

The president’s push to expand fossil fuel production coincided with the UN climate conference. For the first time in the summit’s history, the US didn’t send a delegation.

Critics say the snub shows a disregard for how future generations will be affected by the decisions the White House is making right now.

The revenge tour has come off the rails.

Donald Trump had long promised retribution against his political enemies, but – to coin a phrase used around the White House – he’s f****ed around and found out that it doesn’t fly so easily through the courts.

His mistake was in choosing a pilot unable to fly the plane.

Lindsey Halligan is the lawyer who took the job of Trump-enforcer when others, better qualified, turned it down.

The prosecution of Trump’s adversaries would have been the job of Erik Siebert, US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, but he gave it a body swerve.

He had declined to prosecute the case against Letitia James, the New York attorney-general who successfully prosecuted the Trump organisation for business fraud.

Siebert concluded there were not sufficient grounds to prosecute, which didn’t please the president, and Seibert quit before he was pushed.

A number of career prosecutors were similarly reluctant to take the case, leaving Trump checking availability.

That’s when he turned to Lindsey Halligan, an insurance lawyer by trade.

Her work experience didn’t necessarily suit the job brief – the prosecutor with the highest of profiles had no prosecutorial experience.

In pursuing the cases against Comey and James, she had to present evidence before a grand jury, something she hadn’t done before.

If that wasn’t ideal, that wasn’t all.

Something else Halligan didn’t have was the legal ability to do the job. Her appointment violated laws limiting the ability of the justice department to install top prosecutors.

It was an elementary error that didn’t pass by Judge Cameron Currie, who called it a “defective appointment”.

In setting aside the indictments against Comey and James, she wrote: “I conclude that all actions flowing from Ms Halligan’s defective appointment… constitute unlawful exercises of executive power.”

The US Department of Justice can appeal the move, so Comey and James haven’t reached road’s end.

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But it’s a significant boost for both, and a significant blow for Trump.

He is the president in pursuit of sworn enemies, which his critics characterise as a weaponisation of the justice system.

Those same critics will point to the haste and impropriety on display as evidence of it, and take heart from a system offering a robust resistance.

Donald Trump appears undeterred. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said: “The facts of the indictments against Comey and James have not changed, and this will not be the final word on this matter.”

Letitia James is charged with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. James Comey was charged with making false statements and obstructing a congressional investigation.

Trump fired Comey in 2017, while he was overseeing an investigation into alleged Russian interference in the Trump 2016 campaign.

The US secretary of state has hailed a “tremendous amount of progress” on peace talks after the US and Ukraine delegations met in Geneva – but said that negotiators would “need more time”.

Marco Rubio said the meetings in Switzerland on Sunday have been “the most productive and meaningful” of the peace process so far.

He said the US was making “some changes” to the peace plan, seemingly based on Ukrainian suggestions, “in the hopes of further narrowing the differences and getting closer to something that both Ukraine and obviously the United States are very comfortable with”.

Mr Rubio struck an optimistic tone talking to the media after discussions but was light on the details, saying there was still work to be done.

“I don’t want to declare victory or finality here. There’s still some work to be done, but we are much further ahead today at this time than we were when we began this morning and where we were a week ago for certain,” Mr Rubio said.

He also stressed: “We just need more time than what we have today. I honestly believe we’ll get there.”

Sky News’ defence analyst Michael Clarke said on the initial US-Russian 28-point peace plan that it was Donald Trump against the world, with maybe only Moscow on his side.

Mr Rubio praised the Ukrainian attitude towards the talks and said Mr Trump was “quite pleased” after he previously said in a social media post that Ukraine’s leaders had expressed “ZERO GRATITUDE” for US efforts.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Sunday that there are signs that “President Trump’s team hears us”.

In a news release on Sunday evening, the White House said the day “marked a significant step forward”.

“Ukrainian representatives stated that, based on the revisions and clarifications presented today, they believe the current draft reflects their national interests and provides credible and enforceable mechanisms to safeguard Ukraine’s security in both the near and long term,” it claimed.

Despite diplomatic progress in Geneva the finish line remains a long way off

John Sparks

International correspondent

@sparkomat

We’ve witnessed a day of determined and decidedly frantic diplomacy in this well-heeled city.

Camera crews were perched on street corners and long convoys of black vehicles swept down Geneva’s throughfares as the Ukrainians worked hard to keep the Americans on side.

Secretary of state Marco Rubio did not want to go into details at a press “gaggle” held at the US Mission this evening, but he seemed to think they had made more progress in the last 96 hours than the previous 10 months combined.

The Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy also seemed satisfied enough, posting on Telegram that there were “signals President Trump’s team is hearing us” after a day of “numerous meetings and negotiations”.

That said, we are a long way from the finish line here – something Rubio acknowledged when he said that any proposal agreed here would have to be handed over to the Russians.

At that point, negotiations to stop the war would surely get tougher.

President Putin has shown little or no inclination to stop the conflict thus far.

This, then, is the most important reason the Ukrainians seem determined to keep the Americans on side.

European leaders have presented a counter proposal to the widely criticised US-Russian peace plan, with suggestions including a cap on Ukraine’s peacetime army and readmitting Moscow into the G8.

This will only take place if the plan is agreed to by the US, Russia and Ukraine, and the G7 signs off on the move. Russia was expelled after annexing Crimea in 2014.

The counter proposal also includes US guarantees to Ukraine that mirror NATO’s Article 5 – the idea that “an armed attack against one NATO member shall be considered an attack against them all”.

Read more:
Who actually wrote US-Russian peace plan for Ukraine?
In full: Europe’s 28-point counter proposal to US-Russia plan

The initial peace plan was worked up by the White House and Kremlin without Ukraine’s involvement, and it acquiesces to many of Russia’s previous demands.

It covers a range of issues – from territorial concessions to reconstruction programmes, the future Ukrainian relationship with NATO and the EU, and educational reforms in both Ukraine and Russia.

US and Ukrainian officials are set to meet again today to continue work on the proposal.

It has also been reported that President Zelenskyy could travel to the US as early as this week to discuss the most sensitive aspects of the plan with President Trump.