Trump EPA To Overturn Major Obama Policy
The Trump Administration seems to believe that it will solve the Country’s problems by simply reversing anything that the Obama Administration implemented during the 44th President’s two terms. The latest move in this regard was announced today by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt. Mr. Pruitt declared that the “war on coal is over”. President Trump and members of his administration have received overwhelming support in coal country where the economic situation has steadily declined for decades. Those who believe that coal is the future of energy in America should rejoice. Those who feel that pulling rocks out of the ground and burning them is not the direction that our energy policy should be taking do not share in the aforementioned celebration.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt told coal miners in Kentucky on Monday that he will move to repeal a rule limiting greenhouse-gas emissions from existing power plants, assuring them, “The war against coal is over.”
Speaking at an event in Hazard, Ky., with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Pruitt said his agency will publish the new proposed rule Tuesday.
“Tomorrow, in Washington, D.C., I’ll be a signing a proposed rule to withdraw the so-called Clean Power Plan of the past administration, and thus begin the effort to withdraw that rule,” Pruitt said.
The 43-page proposal, which was obtained by The Washington Post and other news outlets last week, argues that the agency overstepped its legal authority in seeking to force utilities to reduce carbon emissions outside their actual facilities to meet federal emissions targets. It does not offer a replacement plan for regulating emissions of carbon dioxide, which the Supreme Court has ruled that the EPA is obligated to do. Rather, the agency said it plans to seek public input on how best to cut emissions from natural-gas and coal-fired power plants.
EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman said in an interview Monday that Pruitt chose to speak about his plans in Kentucky because coal workers have a direct economic stake in policies aimed at curbing emissions from coal burning.
“He’s speaking directly to people in coal county about how the rule negatively affected the whole industry,” Bowman said.
Reaction to the announcement was divided sharply along ideological lines, with environmental and public health advocates decrying it, and industry groups welcoming the move.
“With this news, Donald Trump and Scott Pruitt will go down in infamy for launching one of the most egregious attacks ever on public health, our climate, and the safety of every community in the United States,” Michael Brune, the executive director of the Sierra Club, said in a statement. “He’s proposing to throw out a plan that would prevent thousands of premature deaths and tens of thousands of childhood asthma attacks every year.”
