October 09, 2017 04:06 PM UTC

The War on Clean Energy

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• by: Colorado Pols

Former President Obama’s Clean Power Plan is about the get the axe from EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. As NBC News reports:

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday that he will sign a new rule overriding the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era effort to limit carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants.

“The war on coal is over,” EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt declared in the coal mining state of Kentucky.

For Pruitt, getting rid of the Clean Power Plan will mark the culmination of a long fight he began as the elected attorney general of Oklahoma. Pruitt was among about two-dozen attorney generals who sued to stop President Barack Obama’s push to limit carbon emissions…

…The withdrawal of the Clean Power Plan is the latest in a series of moves by Trump and Pruitt to dismantle Obama’s legacy on fighting climate change, including the delay or roll back of rules limiting levels of toxic pollution in smokestack emissions and wastewater discharges from coal-burning power plants.

The president announced earlier this year that he will pull the United States out of the landmark Paris climate agreement. Nearly 200 countries have committed to combat global warming by reducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

Pruitt is expected to officially repeal the Clean Power Plan on Tuesday. President Trump often promised during the 2016 campaign that he would destroy the Clean Power Plan, and Pruitt is the perfect executioner.

A long legal battle is expected to follow Pruitt’s formal decision, and no matter the outcome, don’t expect to see much of an uptick in coal mining jobs. The world has been moving away from coal power for many years now, with the U.S. alone reducing its coal-fired power by 15% over the last five years.