Republican congressional leaders on Tuesday endorsed the Trump Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed repeal of the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan climate rules for coal plants.
“I applaud the Trump administration and [EPA] Administrator [Scott] Pruitt for supporting Kentucky miners and for taking steps to overturn one of the main pillars in the Obama War on Coal,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky after Pruitt signed the proposed repeal rule on Tuesday. “Today’s announcement will help protect Kentucky’s reliable and dependable energy source from further regulatory assault.”
McConnell was with Pruitt at an event Monday in the majority leader’s home state where the EPA chief announced his plan to begin the repeal process on Tuesday. The proposed rule opens a 60-day public comment period, which will begin once the rule is published by the Federal Register.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said repealing former President Barack Obama’s climate plan is the “right move for the economy and the rule of law.”
The EPA said the repeal would save the nation $33 billion in compliance costs. The proposed rule also lays out the legal argument for why the Clean Power Plan was legally deficient. The rule required states to cut greenhouse gas emissions a third by 2030, which Pruitt argued overstepped the limits of the Clean Air Act, the law that lays out EPA’s authority to regulate air pollutants.
“The Obama administration’s signature climate rule was a vast, unlawful expansion of government authority into the energy sector with wide-reaching consequences for our economy,” Ryan said.
Committee chairmen also applauded the action taken by the Trump EPA. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, which oversees the EPA, said he is “glad to see” the agency “taking formal steps” to repeal the Obama-era climate plan.
“The EPA is supposed to issue reasonable regulations to protect America’s air,” Barrasso said. “The Clean Power Plan was unreasonable and unlawful. It would have hurt energy workers in Wyoming and harmed the state’s economy. I look forward to working with Administrator Pruitt as he pursues policies that protect our environment and allow America’s economy to grow.”
Meanwhile, Democrats vehemently opposed the proposed rule. Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat on the environment committee, said the proposed rule means the U.S. has given up its leadership position on climate change.
“Today, President Trump and Mr. Pruitt are on the wrong side of history,” Carper said. “They are not just ignoring clear facts. They are creating their own reality, complete with rigged science and math, to justify doing nothing in the face of the greatest environmental challenge of our lifetime. That is not leadership.”
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Climate Change Task Force, said he looks forward to Pruitt’s decision being litigated in the courts. Many climate scientists blame greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels for driving manmade climate change.
“Climate deniers like Scott Pruitt may call the Clean Power Plan a war on coal, but the only war that was declared was on America’s clean energy future with this decision,” Markey said. “The Trump administration’s repeal will no doubt be litigated, and I look forward to the courts’ upholding these historic rules.”
Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York tweeted Tuesday that “W/ America seeing more extreme & dangerous weather than ever before, last thing we should do is roll back actions to combat #ClimateChange.”
