by Michael Bastasch
The Daily Caller
The Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began the process of replacing former President Barack Obama’s signature global warming regulation that was supposed to bring the U.S. into compliance with the Paris climate accord.
But those plans were dashed when President Donald Trump announced he would withdraw from the Paris accord in 2017, and now, Obama’s signature climate regulation is being rolled back.
Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler proposed Tuesday the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) Plan, a more lenient regulatory scheme to cut carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants.
“Between ACE, the recently proposed rollback of the Obama fuel economy standards known as CAFE, and the US pullout from the Paris climate agreement, the Obama climate legacy has been erased by President Trump,” Trump transition team member Steve Milloy told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
EPA’s new regulatory framework would focus on improving heat-rate efficiency at individual coal-fired power plants, making it easier for plants to upgrade their equipment and give states more authority over regulating emissions.
“Although ACE is not a total rollback of the Obama climate rules, that’s okay for now as it constitutes practical rollback of them,” said Milloy, who runs the website JunkScience.com.
