US President Donald Trump's administration announced a plan to weaken regulations on US coal plants on Tuesday, a move which is intended to boost the coal mining industry, but will significantly damage the legacy of previous president Barack Obama, who increased regulations on the industry to cut the emissions that drive global warming.
The Environmental Protection Agency's new Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule would allow states to set their own performance standards at existing coal-fired power plants, rather than following a single federal standard. "An era of top-down, one-size-fits-all federal mandates is over," as acting EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler saying.
Oct. 11, 2017: The Emerald Coal mine facility sits behind a neighborhood in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. /VCG Photo
The ACE proposal is designed to replace Obama's 2015 Clean Power Plan, which can be seen as the latest effort by Trump's administration to roll back the environmental legacy of Obama. Trump has already pulled America out of the 2015 Paris climate accord, which was aimed at significantly cutting global fossil fuel emissions.
Obama's energy plan aimed to usher in the strictest anti-pollution measures on power plants in history. However, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked the regulation from taking effect in 2016 and the case remains suspended.
Trump, whose ascent to the presidency effectively killed off the plan, had blasted it as "intrusive" and claimed it would "kill jobs."
March 28, 2017: US President Donald Trump (C) signs Energy Independence Executive Order at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Headquarters in Washington, DC. /VCG Photo
In 2012, at a time when the Obama administration was seeking to curb coal consumption in the US, Donald Trump tweeted messages asserting climate change was a hoax that China had devised to make US business less competitive.
Within the US, critics warned the plan will boost emissions from power plants, which emit about 28 percent of US's greenhouse gases, and worsen global warming. According to Bob Perciasepe, president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, "The EPA is now proposing a plan that will essentially be ignored by most of the industry".
There are also voices who believe that this announcement is a step toward a more collaborative process, and will lead to achievable progress through more practical, state-driven programs.
The new plan could take months or even years to take effect. Legal challenges are already lining up, as the proposal awaits a 60-day comment period before it can be finalized.
(With inputs from AFP)