This executive order will undo several of Obama’s signature policies to curb climate change.
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Trump’s moves to roll back President Barack Obama’s draconian restrictions, notably on coal, and to begin junking Obama’s Clean Power Plan, don’t doom the planet – because the Obama policies weren’t saving it. “We will put our miners back to work”, Trump said Tuesday.
Trump explained his enthusiasm for the coal industry with a story about a conversation he had with a group of miners in West Virginia.
While some 68 percent of Americans believe climate change is caused by humans, only 40 percent of Republicans say they worry about it, according to polling agency Gallup.
“I’m actually deeply concerned for the U.S. economy”, Figueres said. “In California, we are building a new clean energy future, rather than clinging to an outdated and polluted past”. You won’t mine anymore.
“One country can choose to park itself, if you will, on the sidelines of a highway that is very quickly taking us toward decarbonization, but [that] does not change the direction of travel of all the rest of the countries”. “Republican leaders shouldn’t be trying to undermine the progress we’ve made in order to satisfy their ideological aversion to reality”.
Trump has previously called global warming a “hoax”, and has repeatedly criticised ex-President Barack Obama’s efforts as an attack on American workers and the struggling U.S. coal industry.
President Trump called it “the start of a new era” that would revive the coal industry and create jobs.
Despite Trump’s order, Garcetti said he will keep moving forward with his own environmental initiatives.
The US is poised to compete in energy markets while abiding by the agreement’s calls for emissions reductions in part due to its increasing reliance on natural gas, which produces energy with fewer emissions, Trelenberg said. “The time is long overdue to relieve the burdens of the Obama Administration’s restrictive energy policies and return power to the states.” .
He points to TVA’s pledge to to use only 15% coal by 2026 with a growing focus on natural gas.
In the past two months, owners have announced plans to shut down three coal-fired power plants, including two of the nation’s largest. “For anyone who enjoys breathing clean air and counts on clean drinking water, this is unacceptable”. “It also underscores the importance of our achievement in halting the rule’s enforcement, while reinforcing the Supreme Court’s message – proponents of the Power Plan should put their pencils down”.
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Some 85 per cent of U.S. states are on track to meet the targets despite the fact the rule has not been implemented, according to Bill Becker, director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, a group of state and local air pollution control agencies.
