Don’s coal, coal heart

Axes Bam climate regs

President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday that he said would herald “a new era in American energy” by rolling back regulations aimed at combatting climate change.

The order directs the Environmental Protection Agency to “suspend, revise or rescind four actions related to the Clean Power Plan,” an Obamaera policy requiring states to cut carbon emissions from power plants.

Joined by coal miners in the Environmental Protection Agency’s map room, Trump called the Clean Power Plan, which has faced court challenges, a “crushing attack on American industry.”

“We have a very, very impressive group here to celebrate the start of a new era in American energy and production and job creation,” Trump said, adding that the order will eliminate “federal overreach.”

The order also lifts a 14month-old ban on new coal leases on federal lands, and mandates that every agency conduct a 180-day review identifying regulations and policies that “harm domestic energy production.”

While the sweeping order has climate scientists and environmental groups howling, the Trump administration insists the measures will benefit American workers, especially coal miners.

“C’mon, fellas. You know what this is? You know what this says?” Trump told miners as he signed it. “You’re going back to work.”

He added, “We love our miners. Great people.”

But mining jobs have been dwindling for years, in large part because natural gas prices have fallen, and some experts say Trump’s efforts won’t immediately reverse the industry’s decline.

Former Vice President Al Gore called the order “a misguided step away from a sustainable, carbon-free future for ourselves and generations to come.”

“It is essential, not only to our planet, but also to our economic future, that the United States continues to serve as a global leader in solving the climate crisis by transitioning to clean energy, a transition that will continue to gain speed due to the increasing competiveness of solar and wind,” Gore said.

The order doesn’t mention whether the United States should stay in the Paris Agreement on climate change.

ExxonMobil, which was formerly headed by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, has come out publicly urging the White House to remain in the pact.