Donald
Trump will eliminate landmark climate protection plan, says first
post on White House website
The
Climate Action Plan was introduced four years ago as a national
strategy for tackling climate change
Andrew Griffin
@_andrew_griffin
Donald Trump’s
first post on the White House website suggests destroying the US’s
strategy to tackle climate change.
After President
Trump took over the site, he posted six “Issues” to its home
page. The first of those is an “America First Energy Plan”.
The first proposal
in that document suggests getting rid of “burdensome regulations on
our energy industry”. Those include getting rid of “harmful and
unnecessary policies such as the Climate Action Plan and the Waters
of the US rule”.
President Trump
doesn’t suggest a replacement for any of those regulations, and
goes on to suggest that getting rid of them will save money and keep
America secure.
The Climate Action
Plan was landmark legislation introduced by Barack Obama in June
2013. It served as a “national plan for tackling climate change”,
according to the government.
The key parts of the
plan were divided into three sections. Those outlined plans to cut
carbon pollution in the US, actions to get the country ready for the
effects of climate change, and plans for how to lead international
efforts to address global warming.
No part of the Mr
Trump’s environmental document makes any mention of climate change
or global warming – something that President Trump has in the past
said was just a Chinese hoax. The only mention of the environment
calls for “responsible stewardship of the environment”, but that
refers only to keeping water and air clean.
“Lastly, our need
for energy must go hand-in-hand with responsible stewardship of the
environment,” the document reads. “Protecting clean air and clean
water, conserving our natural habitats, and preserving our natural
reserves and resources will remain a high priority.”
It also says that
Donald Trump will focus the Environmental Protection Agency onto
“protecting our air and water”, and presumably away from climate
policies.
President Trump says
that his environmental policies will join up with his economic ones,
by encouraging more spending in the US economy. The document says
that he will encourage the burning of coal, and the use of shale oil
and gas in the US.
By doing so, he will
be able to use the revenues to pay for the rebuilding of “roads,
schools, bridges and public infrastructure” that he promised to his
voters. It will also help stimulate the agriculture industry, he
claimed.
That will also allow
the US to achieve energy independence from the OPEC alliance of oil
producing countries. But President Trump says he will continue to
work with countries in the Gulf – many of which are in OPEC – “to
develop a positive energy relationship as part of our anti-terrorism
strategy”.
The document also
calls for a new focus on coal and a revival of the country's coal
industry. President Trump has claimed that he will do that by backing
"clean coal" – but it's not clear that such a thing would
actually be possible and whether such thing as clean coal could
actually exist.
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