EPA To Unveil New Plan Which Reverses Obama-Era Coal Power Plant Regulation

JERSEY CITY, NJ - MAY 10: The world trade center building is seen on the background of the Hudson Generating Station in Jersey City, New Jersey on May 10 2018. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is opposing to the effort to repeal the historic climate change protection rule for power plants made by former President Barack Obama, Environmental Defense groups, are fighting back against the Trump administrationÕs request to delay the litigation over the Environmental Protection AgencyÕs (EPA) Clean Power Plan for another 60 days. (Photo by Kena Betancur/VIEWpress/Corbis via Getty Images)
JERSEY CITY, NJ - MAY 10: The world trade center building is seen on the background of the Hudson Generating Station in Jersey City, New Jersey on May 10 2018. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is opposi... JERSEY CITY, NJ - MAY 10: The world trade center building is seen on the background of the Hudson Generating Station in Jersey City, New Jersey on May 10 2018. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is opposing to the effort to repeal the historic climate change protection rule for power plants made by former President Barack Obama, Environmental Defense groups, are fighting back against the Trump administration' request to delay the litigation over the Environmental Protection Agency' (EPA) Clean Power Plan for another 60 days. (Photo by Kena Betancur/VIEWpress/Corbis via Getty Images) MORE LESS
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President Donald Trump’s EPA will unveil a plan in coming days that unravels an Obama-era regulation meant to wean the U.S. off of coal power plants in favor of cleaner forms of energy, according to a Tuesday Politico report.

The proposal would let states write their own lax regulations, or opt out of regulations altogether, for coal-burning power plants. The EPA has reportedly acknowledged that the new proposal would result in increased levels of greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants, undermining  President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan.

The plan essentially will disregard regulations to let the plants burn more coal at a cost-efficient pace, thus encouraging businesses to use them instead of sources that don’t harm the environment.

Per Politico, environmental activists and Democratic states plan to fight the proposal when it is finalized. The EPA reportedly plans to argue that the Obama-era regulation would illegally regulate the power sector, and that the costs of compliance would be insurmountable.

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  1. Coal-burning, right up there with all out thermonuclear war, is a bad idea. Given our large coal-burning legacy and the damage it has inflicts, this would be the time to ban the stuff outright.

    Emissions from burning a lump of coal or a gallon of gas has an effect on the climate 100,000 times greater than the heat given off by burning the fossil fuel itself. And, the heat trapped by those emissions can be felt within just a few months of the fuel being burned. Burning fossil fuels is the globe’s biggest source of human-caused greenhouse gases and the primary cause of climate change.

  2. “The EPA reportedly plans to argue that the Obama-era regulation would illegally regulate the power sector, and that the costs of compliance would be insurmountable.”

    Short term greed, long term consequences.

  3. IF the issue is to keep coal alive then, no. Rump’s EPA can allow coal power plants to run in the middle of downtown Boston and “roll coal” in the Back Bay and it’s not going to save the industry.

    IF that’s what this is about. If this is just a “screw you” to Pres. Obama, then that’s kinda different.

  4. They Converted to Natural Gas because it’s CHEAPER, they make MO MONEY MO MONEY!
    Because it’s CLEANER to burn is an after thought with these Turkeys…Pennsylvania, West Virginia,
    Kentucky love Don The Con and his line of Greed !!! Pay To Play is the Republican WAY!!
    WAKE UP AMERICA

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