Trump EPA finalizes rollback of key Obama climate rule that targeted coal plants
Source: Washington Post
Trump EPA finalizes rollback of key Obama climate rule that targeted coal plants
By Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis June 19 at 10:26 AM
The Trump administration finalized its biggest climate policy rollback Wednesday, requiring the U.S. power sector to cut its 2030 carbon emissions 35 percent over 2005 levels — less than half of what experts calculate is needed to avert catastrophic warming of the planet.
The Affordable Clean Energy rule, issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, demands much smaller carbon dioxide reductions than the industry is already on track to achieve, even without any federal regulation. As of last year the U.S. power sector had cut its greenhouse gas emissions 27 percent compared with 2005.
Addressing an audience of supporters, including coal miners from Pennsylvania and West Virginia, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said the new policy will overturn a climate policy that would have imposed higher costs on low and middle-income Americans.
“That means cleaner and more affordable energy for the American public,” he said.
The new rule comes as many companies and dozens of states wrestle with how to curb greenhouse gas emissions, despite President Trump’s rejection of the scientific consensus that burning fossil fuels is already triggering major climate impacts, including increased droughts, wildfires and intense storms. It reverses the Obama administration’s 2015 regulation, Clean Power Plan, that would have forced the power sector to switch from coal-fired generation to lower-carbon fuels such as natural gas, solar and wind.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/trump-epa-finalizes-rollback-of-key-obama-climate-rule-that-targeted-coal-plants/2019/06/19/b8ff1702-8eeb-11e9-8f69-a2795fca3343_story.html
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