President Donald Trump appears poised to rescind an Obama administration effort to curb carbon emissions from power plants.

Reuters, citing an unnamed White House official, reported last week that an impending executive order would scrap the Clean Power Plan as well as a ban on federal leases for coal mining.

The Obama administration finalized the Clean Power Plan in 2015. The regulations directed states to curb carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by nearly one-third compared to 2005 levels over the subsequent 15 years, but immediate court challenges from numerous state attorneys general kept the requirements in legal limbo.

Legal experts suggested that Trump's executive order could effectively end the Environmental Protection Agency's legal defense of the plan.

The directive is also expected to direct the Interior Department to lift a 2016 ban on new coal mining leases.

The Obama administration argued that both measures would help the renewable energy sector and bolster the country's leadership in the fight against climate change, while critics argued that they would hurt businesses and consumers, particularly in states dependent on fossil fuels for energy.

"Rescinding the federal coal leasing moratorium is part of that executive order, which has lots of different components, including the Clean Power Plan," the White House official told Reuters.

The order would not be the first to scrap recent environmental regulations in the initial weeks of the Trump administration. A previous order ended expanded federal protections for certain waterways, while recently signed legislation rejected new limits on dumping coal waste.

Apparently, Trump's plan to "Make America Great Again" is to pollute the air and water, make health care something only the rich have, build a wall while cutting the Coast Guard and FEMA, and listen to conspiracy theorists over the FBI/CIA/NSA. Trump did say something true, though, when he said we'd "win" so much that we'd be sick of it. If this is "winning", then I'm already sick of it!

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Apparently, Trump's plan to "Make America Great Again" is to pollute the air and water, make health care something only the rich have, build a wall while cutting the Coast Guard and FEMA, and listen to conspiracy theorists over the FBI/CIA/NSA. Trump did say something true, though, when he said we'd "win" so much that we'd be sick of it. If this is "winning", then I'm already sick of it!

As compared to the current Australian government, whose plans include continuing pollution, ignoring renewable power, adopting a pre-Obama US style health system and listening to crackpots and denialists on science in general and climate science in particular. It would be difficult to build a wall around an island continent, but all alternatives are being pursued.

The world is going to hell in a handbasket.

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Paul D

I don't know enough about Australia, but this whole house of cards Trump is building in the US will come crashing down when the consequences of his stupidity and deceit become ever more obvious.

I expect that in the midterm elections the Democrats will regain control of the Senate, and possibly even the House. Paul Ryan has turned out to be a dismal failure. When you sell your soul to the devil, there will be Hell to pay.

I don't expect Trump to be impeached, unless he is even dumber than I believe, but after the midterms he will be powerless to promote his views.

The frustrating thing about the way the Republicans are acting (ok, ONE of the frustrating things) is that - were Trump a Democrat - they'd be pushing for tons of investigations and would be shouting "Impeachment" to the rooftops. And for good reason.

Given how many Benghazi hearings they held, the Yemen raid would have had at least five hearings so far with calls for Trump administration officials to resign.

The Russia connections would have their own set of investigations and the Republicans would be tugging at those threads to see where they lead.

Trump's weekend trips to Mar-A-Lago would be decried both for wasting taxpayer money and for effectively being pay-for-play. (You can greet the President provided you can afford the $200,000 enrollment fee.)

Trump's proposed FEMA and Coast Guard cuts (to pay for his wall) would be shouted down.

Trump's Twitter tirades and unpresidential behavior would have spawned Congressional rebuke.

And so many more that I could list. The only reason the Republicans aren't doing this is because they've decided to put their Party ahead of their Country. They're fine with lighting the nation aflame so long as they're the ones in charge while it burns.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/09/epa-scott-pruitt-carbon-dioxide-global-warming-climate-change?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Australia+Morning+mail+new+030615&utm_term=216671&subid=17659828&CMP=ema_1731

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Scott Pruitt, Donald Trump’s head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, has dismissed a basic scientific understanding of climate change by denying that carbon dioxide emissions are a primary cause of global warming.

Pruitt said on Thursday that he did not believe that the release of CO2, a heat-trapping gas, was pushing global temperatures upwards.

“I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there’s tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact, so no, I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see,” he told CNBC.
Trump administration: EPA studies, data must undergo political review before release
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“But we don’t know that yet ... We need to continue the debate and continue the review and the analysis.”

This stance puts Pruitt at odds with his own agency, which states on its website that carbon dioxide is the “primary greenhouse gas that is contributing to recent climate change”. This finding is backed by Nasa, which calls CO2 “the most important long-lived ‘forcing’ of climate change”.

Scientists have understood for more than a century that CO2 traps heat. Atmospheric concentrations of the gas have increased by more than a third since the industrial revolution, driven by the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report from 2014, which summarized the findings of 2,000 international scientists, states it is “extremely likely” that the steep rise in CO2, along with other greenhouse gases such as methane, has caused most of the global warming experienced since the 1950s.

Pruitt’s comments were quickly condemned by scientists, environmental activists and even his immediate predecessor as EPA chief, Gina McCarthy...

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Paul D

Quote:

“But we don’t know that yet ... We need to continue the debate and continue the review and the analysis.”

Actually, we do, Mr. Pruitt. Oh, wait. I forgot. If 97%+ of scientists think something is true then it's "up for debate" and not "settled science." As long as they can find one "scientist" who either has a crackpot theory or who is willing to say anything for enough cash, climate change will never be "settled science" to them.