It was reported on Tuesday that the White House is drafting executive orders that will target some of Obama’s controversial climate and water rules. President Trump plans to tell the EPA to rewrite a rule that cracks down on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, as well as ordering a rewrite of a rule that gives the federal government more regulatory power over the nation’s waterways.
These two rules are some of the most expansive and controversial from Obama’s administration, and ones that Trump has long promised to eliminate.
The Clean Power Plan was the centerpiece of Obama’s climate change agenda. Republicans contend it gives the government too much power and the energy sector says it imperils fossil fuel industries.
Last February, the Supreme Court halted implementation of the rule until lawsuits against it could move forward. A ruling on the measure is due soon from a federal court.
The water rule — formally titled the Clean Water Rule, but commonly known as Waters of the United States — gives the federal government regulatory jurisdiction over small waterways around the county. The measure was also stayed by a federal judge after a host of states sued against it.
President Trump’s newly confirmed EPA head, Scott Pruitt, is the former attorney general of Oklahoma, and during his tenure there had sued against both the Clean Power plan and the water rule, showing he should be a key leader in Trump’s plan to eliminate these rules.
