HAZARD, Ky. — The head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday that he will sign a new rule overriding n, an Obama-era effort to limit carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants.
“The war on coal is over,” EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt declared in the coal mining state of Kentucky.
Speaking in Kentucky on Monday, Pruitt said he will sign a proposed rule on Tuesday “to withdraw the so-called clean power plan of the past administration.”
The Clean Power Plan aimed to from coal-fired power plants. It was a centerpiece of the Obama administration’s environmental policies.
The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to declare the Obama-era rule by setting emissions standards that power plants could not reasonably meet.
Pruitt said the EPA should not use its authority “to say to you we are going to declare war on any sector of our economy.”
For Pruitt, getting rid of the Clean Power Plan will mark the culmination of a long fight he began as the elected attorney general of Oklahoma. Pruitt was among about two-dozen attorney generals who sued to stop President Barack Obama’s push to limit carbon emissions.
Closely tied to the oil and gas industry in his home state, Pruitt rejects the consensus of scientists that man-man emissions from burning fossil fuels are the primary driver of global climate change. President Donald Trump, who appointed Pruitt and shares his skepticism of established climate science, promised to kill the Clean Power Plan during the 2016 campaign as part of his broader pledge to revive the nation’s struggling coal mines.
In his order Tuesday, Pruitt is expected to declare that the Obama-era rule exceeded federal law by setting emissions standards that power plants could not reasonably meet.
Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, a Republican, sued the Obama administration over the Clean Power Plan, calling it an EPA overstep. That decision with Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, .
In Colorado, the Clean Power Plan called for a 28 percent reduction in overall carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 against 2012 levels.
.@EPAScottPruitt: "Tomorrow, I'll be a signing a proposed rule to withdraw the so-called Clean Power Plan of the past administration."
— Fox News (@FoxNews)
The Clean Power Plan — including the one from Coffman — since it was introduced. The Supreme Court put the plan on hold last year following legal challenges by industry and coal-friendly states.
“The EPA’s decision to repeal this rule clears the way for a new rule making process that addresses the legal deficiencies in the old rule and thoughtfully considers input from various stakeholders, including States,” Coffman said in a written statement Monday. “The goal should be a federal-State partnership that gives States a meaningful role in setting achievable emission standards without dictating how States manage their power grids. Colorado has been a national leader in establishing clean energy standards, and we continue to prove that the States can develop and implement sound environmental policy within the bounds of the law.”
A spokeswoman for Coffman says the Colorado attorney general’s legal action against the Clean Power Plan is expected to be on hold while Pruitt’s repeal process runs its course.
The withdrawal of the Clean Power Plan is the latest in a series of moves by Trump and Pruitt to dismantle Obama’s legacy on fighting climate change, including the delay or roll back of rules limiting levels of toxic pollution in smokestack emissions and wastewater discharges from coal-burning power plants.
The president announced earlier this year that he will pull the United States out of the landmark Paris climate agreement. Nearly 200 countries have committed to combat global warming by reducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
Colorado has already set its own ambitious goals to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions outside of the Clean Power Plan.
Denver Post staff writer Jesse Paul contributed to this report.