Executive Order on Energy Independence Reverses Climate Change Policy

A new Executive Order will continue President Trump’s roll-back of climate change policies enacted by the Obama Administration. The Presidential Order On Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth orders the heads of executive branch agencies to "review all existing regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, and any other similar agency actions...that potentially burden the development or use of domestically produced energy resources, with particular attention to oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy resources."

The executive order reverses parts of President Obama’s 2015 Clean Power Plan, which sought to control carbon emissions from coal-fired electric power plants; the largest source of carbon emissions in the U.S. It also rolls-back a federal moratorium on coal leasing and hydraulic fracturing on federal land, removes limits on methane emissions for oil and gas production, and returns the government to an environmental standard for issuing permits that was established by the administration of George W. Bush.

Enactment of the Clean Power Plan has been on hold since 2015, when twenty four states sued the federal government, claiming massive regulatory overreach. Supporters say the plan is essential to meeting global commitments to combat climate change, as outlined in the Paris Agreement of 2015. That case is ongoing.

Supporters of tighter limits on emissions fear this new executive order could signal to other countries a lack of U.S. commitment to combating global climate change. That could cause, they say, a cascade of increasingly lax, and therefore dangerous, environmental policies around the world.

President Trump and his supporters point to the need to buoy America’s energy production and jobs in that field, especially in parts of the country where coal mining has been a cornerstone of the economy. Trump campaigned on the promise of reviving the domestic coal and natural gas industries.

But real world implementation of this Executive Order could take years. All rules and regulations have to go through an exhaustive formulation and review process, and lawsuits could stall them at any point.

Do you support the President’s Energy Independence Order? Tell President Trump and your Representatives what you think!

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— Asha Sanaker

(Photo Credit: Belaz / Creative Commons )