EPA rolls back Obama-era plan limiting coal emissions

Washington CNN — The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday said states can set their own carbon emissions standards for coal-fired power plants – a rule that the agency itself says could result in 1,400 more premature deaths by 2030 than the Obama-era plan it will replace. In it, he instructed EPA to rescind, replace or revise the Clean Power Plan.” Wheeler said other administration officials who spoke at the event announcing the new rule referred to the Obama plan as an overreach of federal authority and highlighted how the Supreme Court issued a stay of the rule in 2016 after several groups challenged it. “It also hurts the competitiveness of American businesses.” RELATED: More coal-fired power plants have closed under Trump than in Obama’s first term Obama’s Clean Power Plan was challenged by several lawsuits from industry groups and conservative-led states. “The Affordable Clean Energy rule – ACE – gives states the regulatory certainty they need to continue to reduce emissions and provide affordable and reliable energy for all Americans,” Wheeler said. “There is no serious debate – climate change is a severe threat and we ignore science at our own peril.” At a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing last week about the direction of the EPA, former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy – who finalized the Clean Power Plan under Obama – said she believes the proposed Affordable Clean Energy rule, as well as other proposed rules the agency has made since Trump took office, undermines “the science and the law in how they’re trying to roll back those rules.” “I do not dispute any administration coming in with different policies, but the challenge I think we’re facing is they are really changing the rules of the road and not using sound science,” McCarthy said.