The War on Clean Energy

11 Comments

by: Colorado Pols

Scott Pruitt

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.

11 thoughts on “The War on Clean Energy”

Conserv. Head Banger says:

October 9, 2017 at 4:10 pm

Trump & Pruitt oppose the free market, which has tilted heavily towards natural gas and renewables in recent years. Miners in Appalachia need re-training.

Log in to Reply
1. Pseudonymous says:
  
  October 9, 2017 at 4:54 pm
  
  Everybody loves the invisible hand until it gives them the finger. Besides, there’s nothing like a free market in energy in this country.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. MichaelBowman says:
    
    October 9, 2017 at 8:19 pm
    
    Pseudo – I’ve thought a lot about our back-and-forth recent regarding Tillerson and judging him as ‘better’ than most of the Cabinet. You were absolutely right and this latest with Pruitt only underscores your thoughts. Tillerson knew the entire time he was CEO of ExxonMobile about the effects of climate change from burning fossil fuels, yet spent millions creating a campaign to deflect those scientific findings. There are special rooms in very warm places for human beings like this.
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. Pseudonymous says:
      
      October 10, 2017 at 1:18 pm
      
      Yeah. It's a cabinet full of arsonists. That some are burning down smaller or more narrow sectors of our politics/society/environment/world isn't particularly laudatory, in my view.
      
      Log in to Reply
MichaelBowman says:

October 9, 2017 at 5:05 pm

Our planet is being destroyed by a band of psychopaths.

Log in to Reply
mamajama55 says:

October 9, 2017 at 6:14 pm

Can changing the rule at EPA make coal cost less or wind and solar cost more? Not really.

You can get the cheap monkeying around with penalizing people for installing rooftop solar, or spreading myths about windmills killing off birds, but I don't think it will change arithmetic.

When you have conservative bajillionaires like Phil Anschutz investing heavily in wind, not because of the clean power plan, but because wind is relatively cheap and reliable energy source, visionaries like Elon Musk volunteering to remake Puerto Rico's energy grid with clean power, we've already passed the point of no return.

Trumputos will just make themselves less relevant and credible with every pronouncement from their sanctimonious pieholes.

Log in to Reply
1. RepealAndReplace says:
  
  October 9, 2017 at 6:58 pm
  
  Don't be surprised if this administration starts to pay people to burn coal. It will create jobs.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. mamajama55 says:
    
    October 9, 2017 at 7:21 pm
    
    Someone on here said that Trump's wall should be made of coal….
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. notaskinnycook says:
      
      October 10, 2017 at 1:07 am
      
      I said it. It would take tons of the filthy stuff to build the wall he wants and if the Mexicans get irritated enough at the ugly thing, they can always set a match to it and blame us for the pollution.
      
      Log in to Reply
      1. mamajama55 says:
        
        October 10, 2017 at 5:42 am
        
        Log in to Reply
      2. Duke Cox says:
        
        October 10, 2017 at 9:50 am
        
        LOL
        
        good one, skinny….
        
        Log in to Reply