US President Donald Trump has made his stance clear on environmental policies by moving to abolish previous clean air regulations, and slashing funding for agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency. But several states and cities are pushing back and are ready to put up a serious fight. 

The West Coast, often called the “Left Coast” because of its progressive leanings, is living up to that label, once again. A coalition of western state governors and city mayors is rejecting Trump’s attempts at rolling back environmental protections, including the Clean Power Plan passed by his predecessor Barack Obama. 

“Any attacks on the Clean Power Plan would move our nation in the wrong direction and put American prosperity at risk. We will assert our own 21st century leadership and chart a different course. Climate change is one of our greatest threats,” the eight local and state politicians said in a joint statement. 

Environmental law experts say this will very likely lead to a battle in court with California leading the way. The state has the most aggressive greenhouse target in the world to cut emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. 

Environmental advocates are quick to point out flaws in Trump's decisions. But the resistance isn’t just about protecting the environment, it’s also good business. 

Craig Egbert, President of Climate Action Reserve, said climate change leadership, instead, is coming from China where everything from green technology development to carbon emissions cap and trade programs, are being fully embraced. 

“Despite the Trump administration claiming that it's all a Chinese hoax, China’s about to embark on the world’s largest cap and trade program on the planet, period. The dynamism and the commitment that I’ve seen from China from the early days in the 1990s of simply wanting to measure what their greenhouse gas emissions were, to taking this issue very seriously and using that to formulate a sound long term strategy is exactly what every country should be doing,” Egbert said.