Citing a draft version of the final policy, Politico first reported last week that the Trump regime's replacement for the Obama-era Clean Power Plan would allow states to write their own regulations, but the draft also vaguely stated that states would only be allowed to write "modest" regulations.
The replacement policy is now here and, as the draft indicted, it will restrict states' rights by prohibiting them from adopting stricter regulations.
The new regulation, which Acting Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler signed Monday, is called the Affordable Clean Energy rule. It gives states leeway to set their own, drastically lower greenhouse gas emissions targets and restrict what states can do to force coal plants to improve efficiency. [....]
The rule marks one of the most significant rollbacks yet to Barack Obama’s climate legacy, and ― despite the Trump administration’s oft-repeated calls for “regulatory certainty” ― is expected to ignite a yearslong legal battle.
“We’re ending intrusive EPA regulations that kill jobs ... and raise the price of energy so quickly and so substantially,” President Donald Trump said in a statement Tuesday morning.
By the EPA's own calculations, this replacement plan will cause up to 1,400 premature deaths each year by the year 2030. Their own numbers also say it will also contribute to nearly 50,000 extra cases of asthma each year.
So, this is all bad, but on the bright side there's chance this will never became settled law much the same way the Obama-era Clean Power Plan was never settled law. At least 18 to 20 states will probably challenge this policy in court and that number could grow after the midterm election if Democrats successfully retake control of several more governor's mansions.
This is likely to be a long, protracted legal fight; long enough to delay the new rules until a Democratic Congress or president can change it back.
Now, I simply can't let it go so I have to point out that Trump's claim that the Clean Power Plan killed jobs and raised prices is pure hogwash.
The Clean Power Plan was never law so it literally could not kill any jobs or raise prices. The Clean Power Plan was blocked in court two years ago and has remained in that state while Trump's EPA rewrote it.
But you know what will kill jobs and raise energy prices? Trump's dumbass trade war. Trump's tariffs on solar panels and foreign retaliatory tariffs on American energy products are killing jobs. Trump has also proposed tariffs on foreign uranium which will dramatically raise energy prices for most households in the country. Trump's is also still considering a plan to subsidize ancient coal-fired power plants due for retirement by raising prices for everyone else to pay for it.