Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
U.S. unveils plan to boost coal industry
Some officials blast proposal, vow to take legal action
WASHINGTON — As the Trump administration unveiled its plan Tuesday to gut landmark rules limiting power plant emissions, it made one thing clear: When it comes to environmental regulations, this White House is all about letting states chart their own course.
That is, as long as the states in question are coal states, and not those determined to utilize cleaner energy.
“The era of top-down, one size fits all mandates is over,” EPA interim chief Andrew Wheeler declared on a call with reporters where he presented Trump’s replacement for the Obama-era Clean Power Plan.
The rewrite, which could prolong the lives of heavily polluting coal plants for decades and pump enough additional soot and smog-forming emissions in the air to cause an estimated 1,400 premature deaths each year, is branded by the Trump administration as the Affordable Clean Energy rule.
“This rule will continue our progress legally and with the proper respect for the states,” Wheeler said.
States with a history of fighting air pollution from coal-fired power plants are denouncing the Trump administration’s move to scale back restrictions on emissions, with some threatening court challenges.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan pledged to “take legal action to ensure the federal government does its job” to protect the environment and people’s health. She warned the administration’s move will have “disastrous consequences.”
Madigan is part of a coalition that includes officials from 16 other states.
On Tuesday, the administration’s posture toward states changed dramatically as it touted the proposed new rule that would be a boon to the coal industry.
The Affordable Clean Energy rule abandons the central goal of Obama’s Clean Power Plan, to push utilities to shift their operations away from coal and toward cleaner burning fuels.
Under Trump’s plan, the coal plants that would have been forced into retirement under Obama’s proposal could instead continue operating indefinitely, with only relatively modest modifications.
California Gov. Jerry Brown called the Trump administration plan “a declaration of war against America and all of humanity.”
“It will not stand,” he wrote on Twitter. “Truth and common sense will triumph over Trump’s insanity.”
The Trump administration faces an intense court fight.
The federal government is obligated under the Clean Air Act to regulate power sector greenhouse gas emissions, and to hold the industry to using the best available technology to contain them.
Former Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy called the proposal “essentially a huge giveaway to coal-fired power plants by giving them a free pass to increase not just carbon pollution but conventional smog and soot.”
According to the EPA’s own analysis, the Trump plan could lead to 1,400 premature deaths annually by 2030 as a result of the air pollution that gets released along with the greenhouse gases the Clean Power Plan targeted. The Trump plan could also result in 48,000 new cases of asthma.
Coal state leaders applauded the approach.
“The Clean Power Plan clearly overstepped the EPA’s legal bounds and directly attacked America’s coal industry,” said a statement from Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo. “In Wyoming, we know that a one-size-fits-all mandate isn’t the best option, so I am glad the Trump administration is working to provide flexibility for states, the energy industry and the entire nation.”