Senate Democrats plan to force a vote next week on reversing the Trump administration’s rule weakening former President Barack Obama’s signature climate change regulation.
Democratic leader, and New York senator, Chuck Schumer announced Thursday that the minority party will use a procedural tool to force a vote on the Trump administration’s decision to weaken Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which sought to reduce carbon emissions from coal plants.
The tool in question, the Congressional Review Act, allows regulations to be overturned by a simple majority, meaning Democrats would still need four Republicans to cross over and vote with them, assuming all Democrats vote against the Trump rule. That is unlikely in the Republican-controlled Senate, meaning the maneuver is likely intended as political messaging to force moderate vulnerable Republicans such as Sen. Susan Collins of Maine to take a stand against Trump’s deregulatory environmental agenda.
“We will force a vote to repeal the EPA’s dangerous rule that weakens critical standards to reduce emissions from power plants that significantly contribute to the climate crisis,” Schumer said in a statement. “The Trump administration’s Dirty Power Scam comes at a time when Americans are demanding we take bold action to confront the climate crisis and it must be reversed.”
The Trump administration’s replacement of the Clean Power Plan, known as the Affordable Clean Energy or ACE rule, is meant to encourage efficiency upgrades at coal plants to help them exist longer and emit less pollution.
The plan, released in June, encourages states to allow utilities to make heat rate improvements at individual power plants, enabling them to run more efficiently by burning less coal to produce the same amount of electricity.
This focus on regulating power plants individually is a rejection of the Clean Power Plan, which allowed for efficiency upgrades, but also sought to push the overall power sector to switch away from coal to natural gas and renewables.
[Previous coverage: Democratic states sue Trump for gutting signature Obama emissions rule for coal plants]
