Byย Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch.ย Reposted with permission fromย EcoWatch.
Theย Trumpย administration will scrap theย Clean Power Planย (CPP), President Obama’s signature environmental policy aimed at fightingย climate change, confirmingย earlier reportsย of such aย move.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administratorย Scott Pruittย said at an event in Kentucky he will sign a proposed rule on Tuesday โto withdraw the so-called clean power plan of the pastย administration.โ
The Clean Power Plan, which focused on cutting emissions from coal-burning power plants, was aย major targetย of the current administration’s regulatory rollbacks.ย In March, President Trump signed theย Executive Order on Energy Independenceย that called for a review of the CPP, which he considers a โwar onย coal.โ
And in June, Trump infamously announced plans to withdraw the U.S. from theย Paris climate agreement, a global action plan to limit temperature rise to well below 2ยฐC to avoid dangerous climate change. Without the CPP, the U.S. will not live up to its pledge made inย Paris.
Pruitt, as Oklahoma’s attorney general, made a career fighting EPA safeguards and was part of aย coalitionof state attorneys general that sued the Obama administration to block the implementation of the CPP. The Supreme Court has since put the regulation on hold until the legal challenge isย completed.
โThe EPA and no federal agency should ever use its authority to say to you we are going to declare war on any sector of our economy,โ Pruitt saidย Monday.
According to theย Associated Press, the EPA plans to declare that the Obama policy overstepped federal law by setting emissions standards that power plants could not reasonablyย meet.
โThat rule really was about picking winners and losers,โ Pruittย also saidย during his remarks. โThe past administration was unapologetic, they were using every bit of power, authority to use the EPA to pick winners and losers on how we pick electricity in this country. That isย wrong.โ
Vera Pardee, senior counsel at theย Center for Biological Diversity, criticized the announcement in a prepared statement toย EcoWatch.
โRepealing the Clean Power Plan will sabotage EPA‘s most important effort to fight pollution and protect us from climate change,โ Pardee said. โUndoing the existing plan without any replacement would add years of doing absolutely nothing to reduce power plant emissions. If Scott Pruitt follows through with this repeal, his reckless disregard for EPA‘s essential duties should cost him hisย job.โ
POLITICOย reported last week that the agency will now seek suggestions from the public on possible replacements for the CPP but โsome conservative groups have pressed for Pruitt to simply erase Obama’s rule and offer no replacement atย all.โ
Main image: EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt Credit: White House,ย publicย domain
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