United States President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Tuesday to withdraw several climate change-related initiatives undertaken by his predecessor Barack Obama, ABC News reported. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said Trump’s Energy Independence order will be pro-growth and pro-environment, but green activists have announced that they will challenge the controversial president’s order in court, Reuters reported.
Obama’s Clean Power Plan had asked states to reduce carbon emissions from power plants to enable the country to meet the goals set in the 2015 Paris accord. The deal had not been implemented because of a US Supreme Court stay order and opposition from Republican states. Trump’s policy will ask the EPA to start a “review process” to undo Obama’s plan.
While the US president has yet to announce his decision on the Paris agreement, his new order is also expected to suspend the previous administration’s ban on coal leasing on federal lands, change existing regulations on methane emissions and reduce the priority given to climate change in federal agencies’ assessments of new rules, Reuters reported.
During his election campaign, Trump had promised to remove curbs imposed on oil and gas drilling as well as coal mining industries. “The previous administration devalued workers with their policies. We can protect the environment while providing people with work,” a White House official told reporters.
Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer said, “These actions are an assault on American values, and they endanger the health, safety and prosperity of every American,” Reuters reported.
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