Trump Lays Plans to Reverse Obama’s Climate Change Legacy
While the White House is not expected to explicitly say the United States is withdrawing from the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change,
and people familiar with the White House deliberations say Mr. Trump has not decided whether to do so, the policy reversals would make it virtually impossible to meet the emissions reduction goals set by the Obama administration under the international agreement.
By CORAL DAVENPORTMARCH 21, 2017
WASHINGTON — President Trump is poised in the coming days to announce his plans to dismantle the centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s climate change legacy, while also gutting several smaller
but significant policies aimed at curbing global warming.
In an announcement that could come as soon as Thursday or as late as next month, according to people familiar with the White House’s planning, Mr. Trump will order Mr. Pruitt to withdraw
and rewrite a set of Obama-era regulations known as the Clean Power Plan, according to a draft document obtained by The New York Times.
The draft order would also rescind an executive order by Mr. Obama
that all federal agencies take climate change into account when considering any form of environmental permitting.
That measure formed the Obama administration’s economic justification for issuing climate change regulations
that would harm some industries, such as coal mining, noting that those costs would be outweighed by the economic benefits of preventing billions of tons of planet-warming pollution.