The news of the order, which may be signed this week, came from a source familiar with the Trump administration’s plan, reports Bloomberg.
The order is sweeping in its context and aims to do away with Obama-era regulations that targeted reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reverses the way the former administration addressed climate change. The order will also direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to undo the Clean Power Plan.
The Clean Power Plan was the centerpiece of President Obama’s initiative to combat climate change. However, the man in the oval office now is a climate change denier with one goal – and that is to do away with, bury or erase from the record any mention of the role climate change may play in our environment.
Doing away with environmental reviews
Most people are familiar with “environmental reviews” or assessments that are needed before construction is started on projects like pipelines, housing units or other infrastructure. This metric is known as the “social cost of carbon.” In other words, the reviews are made to determine the potential economic impact from climate change, reports Reuters.
However, an environmental review also helps in determining that a proposed project does not negatively impact the surrounding environment and that the property site itself will not have an adverse environmental or health effect on end users. So a review works both ways.
Obama used the social cost of carbon metric to justify a whole set of environmental regulations that many opponents say bogged down the EPA and its ability to regulate efficiently. Should Trump go ahead with signing the order, some regulations would be dropped immediately while others will take years to rescind.
American Energy Alliance President Tom Pyle is ecstatic over the idea of getting rid of the climate change regulations, and praised Trump to Bloomberg, saying, “President Obama created such a labyrinth of rules and orders and regulations to cement his agenda across practically every agency.”
Pyle went on to say the regulations were “deliberately set up by the previous administration to make it difficult to utilize coal, oil and natural gas.” But environmentalists argue that with Trump doing away with climate change rules, he is upending the climate pact commitment made by the U.S. to the rest of the world and hurting the environment.
Paul Getsos, the national coordinator of People’s Climate Movement, was quoted by The Hill as saying he believes “Trump’s order will put our country, our communities, and our people at great risk.”
