Trump May Soon Attempt To Repeal All Of Obama's Policies On Climate Change

Do you think Trump's removals of climate change policy are a good idea?

Christopher Marlowe
Created by Christopher Marlowe
On Mar 22, 2017
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In line with many executive orders Trump has already signed to repeal other actions of President Obama and closely following his decision to cut the Environmental Protection Agency's budget by 31%, his next focus may fall on those climate change policies Obama put in place during his time as president.

And while Trump has supposedly not yet decided to withdraw from the 2015 Paris accords on climate change, his attempts to repeal Obama's policies would make it very difficult for the United States to keep the agreement to reduce greenhouse gas pollution by 26% by 2025.

Essentially, Trump's current plan seems to primarily entail reversing Obama's decision to cut down on coal mining and replace coal plants with wind and solar energy farms, a campaign promise that helped him win in several coal-producing states but that would increase carbon dioxide and other forms of pollution. The Trump administration plans to justify this decision economically.

As to climate change, I think the president was fairly straightforward: We’re not spending money on that anymore.

Mick Mulvaney, Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget

New York Times, March 21, 2017

However, it may be more difficult for the Trump administration to repeal Obama's climate policies than initially imagined. According to Richard J. Lazarus, a professor of environmental law at Harvard, there will most likely be a "multiyear process of proposing draft rules, gathering public comment and forming a legal defense against an expected barrage of lawsuits almost certain to end up before the Supreme Court."

To undo the rule, the E.P.A. will now have to follow the same procedure that was followed to put the regulations in place. Trump’s announcements have zero impact. They don’t change existing law at all.

Richard J. Lazarus

New York Times, March 21, 2017

But now, what we'd like to know is...

Do you think it's a good idea to attempt to repeal Obama's climate change policies?

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