Trump Administration Aims To Roll Back Power Plant Regulations

WASHINGTON, DC — President Trump plans to sign an executive order Tuesday rescinding Obama-era environmental regulations that target power plant carbon emissions, Scott Pruitt said Sunday on ABC News' "This Week."

The Clean Power Plan was initiated by President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency in an effort to reduce the United States' contributions to global climate change. It was controversial for its aims and because critics said it would hurt the American energy industry. Many questioned whether the EPA had the authority to regulate carbon.

"The executive order's going to address the past administration's effort to kill jobs across this country through the Clean Power Plan," said Pruitt, Trump's EPA administrator. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch for daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

"This Clean Power Plan is something that the Supreme Court, as you know, has said is likely unlawful," he continued, noting that the court has blocked the plan while legal challenges progressed.

He went on: "And so there's been a stay against this Clean Power Plan. So our actions, starting on Tuesday, shortly after the executive order, will make sure that whatever steps we take in the future will be pro-growth, pro-environment, but within the framework of the Clean Air Act, and it will be legal."

“We are disappointed in the Supreme Court’s decision today to delay the job-creating, life-saving Clean Power Plan," said Joanne Spalding, chief climate counsel for the Sierra Club, when the court issued the ruling. "The Clean Power Plan follows trends that are already occurring in the electric sector and we are already dramatically reducing carbon pollution as we transition to clean, renewable energy. Large majorities of Americans support those efforts and the Clean Power Plan."

The plan itself was designed to lower national levels of carbon emissions and push the country as a whole to depend on cleaner sources of energy. It focuses on coal power plants, as coal is one of the most carbon-intensive fuel sources.

In rescinding these regulations, Trump would be carrying through on promises he made during the campaign to ease regulations on coal. He also previously called climate change a "hoax," though he has moderated his language on this topic somewhat.

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Photo credit: John Fowler