Coal deregulation plan could cause more deaths

The Trump administration on Tuesday moved to prop up the declining coal industry with an overhaul of Obama-era pollution rules, acknowledging that the increased emissions from aging coal-fired plants could kill hundreds more people annually and cost the country billions of dollars.

The proposal broadly increases the authority given to states to decide how and how much to regulate existing coal power plants.

The Environmental Protection Agency said its Affordable Clean Energy rule “empowers states, promotes energy independence and facilitates economic growth and job creation.”

“CLEAN COAL,” U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted ahead of a Tuesday trip to coal country in West Virginia. Trump was expected to promote the plan as making good on his campaign pledge to bring back the coal industry, which is being hit hard by market forces that make natural gas and other cleaner fuels cheaper and more appealing.

“Today we are fulfilling the president’s agenda,” acting EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler told reporters.

The proposal dismantles former president Barack Obama’s 2015 Clean Power Plan, one of his administration’s legacy efforts against climate change. The Obama rules, which have been halted by court challenges, would have increased federal regulation of emissions from the nation’s electrical grid and broadly promoted cleaner energy, including natural gas and solar and wind power.

Michelle Bloodworth, president of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity — a trade group that represents coal producers — called the new rule a marked departure from the “gross overreach” of the Obama administration and said it should prevent a host of premature coal plant retirements.

But the Natural Resources Defense Council called the Trump’s proposal “Dirty Power Plan.”

Gina McCarthy, EPA administrator when the Obama plan was developed, said the proposed changes show the Trump administration is emphasizing “coal at all costs.”

The EPA’s 289-page regulatory analysis acknowledged that every scenario under its proposal projects “small increases” in climate-changing emissions and some pollutants, compared to the Obama plan.

EPA officials said they could give no firm projections for the health effects of their plan because that will depend on how states regulate power plants.

But models provided by the agency estimate that under the Trump plan, 300 to 1,500 more people would die prematurely each year by 2030, compared to the Obama plan. The models for the Trump plan also project tens of thousands of additional asthma attacks and hundreds more heart attacks compared with the Obama plan.

When health costs from air pollution are factored in, the repeal of the coal power plan would cost the country $1.4 billion (U.S.) to $3.9 billion annually, according to the agency.

Trump wants to roll back Obama Clean Power Plan and let the states decide