Details Emerge of Trump/GOP Plan Reversing Obama's Clean Power Plan: More Death

It was nearly a year ago Smart Dissent wrote about the announced repeal of the Clean Power Plan which sought to push states to move away from coal in favor of sources of electricity that produce fewer carbon emissions. 

The Trump administration is preparing to unveil its plan for undoing President Obama’s most ambitious climate regulation — offering a replacement that would do far less to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet..... a sharp contrast from the aims of Obama’s Clean Power Plan, a 2015 regulation that would have sped a shift away from coal use and toward less-polluting sources such as natural gas, wind and solar..... meant to see greenhouse gas emissions from the U.S. power sector fall to 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.  That plan was the centerpiece of Obama’s pledge for the U.S. to cut carbon dioxide emissions as part of the Paris climate agreement, which Trump has said he plans to exit.

Scott Pruitt first and now Andrew Wheeler, are using the Environmental Protection Agency to serve corporate interests.  It is the definition of "The Swamp."  They would love nothing more than to erase it from existence.  These elected and appointed Republicans have the mindset that nothing, even the future our the one planet we have, should stand in the way of corporations maximizing profits.

The new climate proposal for coal-burning power plants.... will give states wide latitude to write their own modest regulations for coal plants or even seek permission to opt out....  States will be able to present reasons for why they don’t want to regulate coal plants....EPA is looking at letting states decide whether they want to adopt changes to pollution reviews that kick in when a plant makes upgrades.  Existing rules are meant to keep plants from making changes that cause more pollution.

This same EPA being run and loaded with anti-regulation, climate change deniers even reports the results of these changes will be catastrophic.

The administration’s own analysis, however, revealed on Tuesday that the new rules could also lead to as many as 1,400 premature deaths annually by 2030 from an increase in the extremely fine particulate matter that is linked to heart and lung disease, up to 15,000 new cases of upper respiratory problems, a rise in bronchitis, and tens of thousands of missed school days.

The fight will only intensify from here, pitting corporate profits against the interests of every living and future living being on earth, human and not.  Fortunately lawsuits from groups seeking to protect our future continue unabated.

Environmental advocates and blue states plan to wage war on the proposal....

ACTION: Organizations such as the Natural Resources Defense Coucil, 350.org, the Sierra Club will be fighting hard against this administration.  Read up on their work at their web sites, follow them on Twitter, and give a donation to them or similar groups.  We need environmental groups to be well funded to fight this fight.  Their web sites have concrete ways you can get involved beyond giving them money if this fighting for this cause drives you.

Sources: 

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/14/trump-reverse-climate-rule-740066

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/climate/epa-coal-pollution-deaths.html