How Exactly Will Pruitt Kill Clean Power Plan?
By Andrew Childers, Bloomberg BNA.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has sentenced the Clean Power Plan to death. Now it’s only a matter of determining the method of execution.
President Donald Trump could sign an executive order this week directing the Environmental Protection Agency to walk back the Obama administration’s signature climate rule, which Pruitt as Oklahoma attorney general had opposed. Repealing the Clean Power Plan, a lengthy process sure to invite legal challenges from environmentalists, is the first shot in a broader effort to undo the Obama administration’s efforts to address climate change.
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Pruitt said the EPA would abide by the power that Congress expressly delegated, mirroring arguments he’s previously made against the regulation.
“We have to send a message across the country that we’re going to provide certainty by living within the framework Congress has passed,” he said. “So we’re going to see regulations rolled back that aren’t consistent with that—[Waters of the U.S.], Clean Power Plan, the methane rule.”