OPINION:
President Donald Trump is poised to shred Barack Obama’s whole climate change rule book on Tuesday — and the way he’s doing it is just priceless.
He’s taking a play from the ol’ pen and phone president and signing an executive order to suspend, rescind or send for review a whole batch of Obama-era environmental regulations. Going to Congress for an OK? Forget about it.
Let the U.S. production begin.
But there’s a caveat here. Trump needs to make sure he goes far enough. The EPA has been nothing but a regulatory bully for the last eight years. It’s time to boot the bully from the playground.
Trump’s order will essentially abolish moratoriums on federal coal leasing, and rewrite the rules regarding carbon emissions. No longer will federal agencies have to conduct climate change studies as part of their impact reports for proposed developments and actions. It’s not yet clear if Trump’s ultimate goal is to withdraw America from the Paris climate pact, a nasty anti-growth deal that commits U.S. power companies, businesses and agencies to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 26-to-28 percent by 2025, compared to 2005 levels.
That’s a hot button issue even among conservatives — as is the fate of the endangerment findings, at least according to Politico.
“EPA administrator Scott Pruitt is coming under fire from conservatives amid a simmering behind-the-scenes fight over how far to take President Donald Trump’s push to undo his predecessor’s climate change agenda,” Politico wrote. “Pruitt successfully argued against including [in Trump’s order] language revoking the agency’s 2009 ’endangerment finding,’ according to two sources close to the issue.”
The endangerment finding says that humans can indeed be harmed by greenhouse gas emissions and therefore, the EPA ought to stand as the overseer of carbon dioxide. Obama used that ruling to push forward with much of his environmental provisions.
And for those who see the EPA as overly reaching with the federal authority, the endangerment finding is a must-go.
As former Trump EPA transition team chief Myron Ebell said: “Getting rid of the Clean Power Plan is just not enough. Before you know [if you leave the endangerment finding], you end up having to do a Trump Clean Power Plan.”
Agreed. The threat of court suits and lengthy legal battles — which is the main argument against pitching the endangerment finding — should not keep Republicans from taking the strong actions needed to curb EPA authorities.
For far too long, the EPA has been able to run roughshod over property- and business-owners, coal country and energy developers. With Trump in charge, and the House and Senate in control of the GOP, this is prime time to take back some of authorities wrongfully ceded to the EPA in the first place.
Trump’s administration should stand bold in the face of Obama-era green rules. If not now, then when? Giving up the fight against EPA overreach now will guarantee America’s path will stay the Obama-fueled radical environmental course for decades to come.
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