Republican front-runner Donald Trump on Saturday called the Environmental Protection Agency on Saturday a “complete disaster” that is unfairly targeting Ohio’s coal and steel industries.
Trump was speaking from a rally in Dayton, Ohio, ahead of a presidential primary election on Tuesday.
“They are a complete disaster, we are going to change things around,” Trump said.
“We have to protect your coal industry which is being decimated” by EPA regulations, he said. “And we have to protect your steel industry.”
The EPA has a variety of regulations on the utility industry, including the Clean Power Plan to control greenhouse gas emissions, which the industry blames for eroding the market for coal.
Ohio is a party to major lawsuit opposing the Clean Power Plan, which is the centerpiece of President Obama’s climate change agenda. Scientists blame greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels for raising the temperature of the Earth, resulting in more severe weather, heat, droughts, flooding and sea-level rise.
