Courting coal
EPA chief says Trump to undo Obama plan to curb global warming
President Donald Trump in the coming days will sign a new executive order that unravels his predecessor’s sweeping plan to curb global warming, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Sunday.
EPA chief Scott Pruitt said the executive order to be signed Tuesday will undo the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, an environmental regulation that restricts greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants. The 2015 rule has been on hold since last year while a federal appeals court considers a challenge by coal-friendly Republican-led states and more than 100 companies.
Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,’’ Pruitt said Trump’s intention is to bring back coalmining jobs and reduce the cost of electricity.
Supporters of former President Barack Obama’s plan, including some Democraticled states and environmental groups, argue it would spur thousands of clean-energy jobs and help the U.S. meet ambitious goals to reduce carbon pollution set by an international agreement reached in Paris in late 2015.
Pruitt on Sunday called the Paris climate accord a “bad deal’’ because he said it went too easy on China and India, who like the U.S. are among the world’s leading producers of carbon dioxide.
“So we’ve penalized ourselves through lost jobs while China and India didn’t take steps to address the issue internationally. So Paris was just a bad deal, in my estimation,’’ he said.