While media attention remains focused on the failure of House Republicans to unite around a plan to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, President Trump has delivered a crucial victory to the cause of free markets in the form of a new executive order repealing environmental regulations.
Conservative proponents of free markets who favor patient-centered healthcare that is free of government control and the confirmation of a new Supreme Court justice who embraces originalist jurisprudence are understandably frustrated with what has recently transpired on Capitol Hill. But when viewed in retrospect, March 2017 will mark a critical turning point in the battle to restore free markets and constitutionally limited government.
Trump’s executive order on climate and energy policy uproots rules and regulations that burden average Americans with higher energy costs, fewer job opportunities and anemic economic growth. There is much to applaud in the order from a free market perspective.
The full text is available here.
For starters, Trump’s order revokes President Obama’s so-called Clean Power Plan, an energy-rationing scheme, that expanded the EPA’s regulatory powers beyond what was permitted under the Clean Air Act. The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank based in Washington, joined with other free market advocates to file suit against the EPA arguing that the Clean Power Plan is unconstitutional.
Myron Ebell, director of CEI’s Center for Energy and Environment, sees cause for encouragement in Trump’s latest action. But he also makes it clear in a statement that some heavy lifting still needs to be done to fully reverse the damage of Obama’s regulatory policies. Ebell said:
President Trump’s Executive Order on withdrawing much of President Obama’s climate and energy-rationing agenda is welcome news for the American people. In particular, we applaud his action to begin withdrawing the EPA’s greenhouse gas rules, including the so-called ‘Clean Power’ Plan. These rules, which are clearly illegal, would raise electric rates for consumers significantly and do immense economic damage to the heartland states where U.S. manufacturing is now concentrated.
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Also important are the president’s actions on the Social Cost of Carbon and the NEPA climate impacts guidance documents. If left in place, these two guidance documents would be used to justify ever-more destructive energy regulations and to stop public infrastructure and private natural resource projects across the country.
Even so, Ebell points out that more heavy lifting needs to be done before Trump can close the deal on putting an end to Obama’s climate change regime.
“The two most important decisions yet to be announced are to withdraw from the Paris Climate Treaty and to re-open the EPA’s Endangerment Finding,” he said.
“It is important to understand that all these policies are closely connected and that striking down most but not all of them will not be sufficient to undo the damage done by President Obama’s energy-rationing policies. Environmental pressure groups are already planning to file suit in federal court using the Paris Climate Treaty and the Endangerment Finding to block the withdrawal of the EPA’s greenhouse gas emissions rules for new and existing power plants.”
Between the confirmation battle over the next Supreme Court justice and the consternation over healthcare policy, it is easy to lose sight over what was accomplished this month in terms of rolling back expensive, burdensome regulations.
Just last week, the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based free market institute, held its 12th annual International Conference on Climate Change in Washington, D.C. Since 2008, Heartland has brought together more than 4,000 people from across the globe to participate in the conferences, including a growing number of scientists from across the globe who have debunked alarmist theories that connect human activity with climate change. Updated scientific research now points to natural influences, not human activity, as the primary drivers of climate change.
Joe Bast, president and CEO, of the Heartland Institute told conference attendees that the scientific battle over climate is largely over, but the political battle to uproot Obama-era regulations remains in full swing.
That’s for sure.
But Trump’s executive order demonstrates that March was a good month for the cause of economic freedom despite temporary setbacks on other fronts.
Kevin Mooney (@KevinMooneyDC) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is an investigative reporter in Washington, D.C. who writes for several national publications.
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