Trump Now Targeting Obama’s Greenhouse Gas Threat Declaration for Sweeping Regulatory Rollback – RedState
In yet another comeback to sanity, the Trump administration is now considering reversing a key Obama administration climate “finding” that was used to regulate U.S. energy production. This Obama-era regulation identified six greenhouse gases requiring regulation, including CO2.
President Donald Trump’s administration is set to roll back an Obama-era greenhouse gas study Wednesday that serves as the basis for justifying climate regulations across the country.
The 2009 “danger statement” identifies six greenhouse gases that the Obama administration says pose “a threat to public health and welfare.” This finding of harm was then used to justify sweeping Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) climate regulations, such as raising fuel economy standards and limiting emissions from power plants, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin hailed the move as a reduction in government red tape in an interview with the Journal.
Of course, these regulations amounted to putting an anchor on the economy. It seems Democrats have never seen a plan to raise energy costs they didn’t like, and Obama’s people were no exception. Now we see some of the stupidity reversed.
The Journal reports that the final rule will be made public later this week and is expected to eliminate requirements for measuring, reporting, certification and compliance with federal greenhouse gas emission standards for motor vehicles. The decline is not yet affecting power plants or oil and gas facilities.
“More energy makes humanity thrive,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told the outlet. “Energy abundance is the thing we need to focus on, not regulating certain forms of energy.”
Secretary Burgum is of course right. Energy is at the heart of everything we do. Energy costs are reflected in the price of everything we buy, every product, every commodity, every service, everything.
Trump is expected to host a White House event on Wednesday with Zeldin and Energy Secretary Chris Wright. There, they will announce a new War Department initiative to purchase electricity from coal-fired power plants.
This is a solid approach overall.
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What’s not mentioned here, probably because it’s not in the Obama administration’s rules that the Trump administration is defenestrating, is nuclear power. Nuclear power offers the best of both worlds: minimal emissions, high energy density and reliability. Coal, however, is still plentiful and modern coal-fired power plants are much cleaner than those built just a few decades ago.
We may remember 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton promising to lay off coal workers. That’s the way Democrats think: make up a crisis and use it to better control the lives of ordinary Americans.
Regarding CO2, Obama’s “discovery” is doubly stupid. If you look at the history of the planet, we are currently at near record lows for atmospheric CO2 content – and I can promise you that in the Permian there were no gorgonopsids driving SUVs and burning coal.
CO2 is emitted by literally everything that breathes on the planet. It is essential for the growth of plants, including all of our crops on which we depend.
This decision by the Trump administration is another step toward unlocking America’s energy potential. That’s a good thing – and it’s something we need to remember when midterms roll around this fall.
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