BILLINGS, Mont. -- President Donald Trump's administration is advancing a proposal for electric utilities that would supplant President Barack Obama's principal attempt to curtail U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.
The Environmental Protection Agency disclosed Tuesday that it sent the new rule to the White House for review. The document itself was not released, but Trump has been outspoken in his desire to help the ailing coal industry by rolling back what he considers burdensome regulations.
Obama sought to cut U.S. carbon dioxide emissions to 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, largely by reducing pollution from coal-fired power plants.
Under Trump, the EPA declared last year that the old rule exceeded federal law by setting emissions standards that power plants could not reasonably meet. In December, the agency announced it would craft a replacement plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
Paul Wapner with American University in Washington, D.C., said Trump appears intent on dismantling Obama's domestic response to climate change, after already reversing Obama's international achievement on that front by pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord.
"You remove those two pieces and basically the U.S. doesn't have a climate plan," said Wapner, a professor of global environmental politics.
Business on 07/11/2018