President-elect Donald Trump has confirmed his intentions to cancel the Clean Power Plan, in a video message outlining his plans for when he takes office in January.
During his election campaign, Trump made several references to his intent to dismantle not only Obama’s Clean Power Plan, but also US involvement with the Paris Climate Agreement and the solar investment tax credit.
His latest message stressed his designs in “putting America first” with promises to “bring back our jobs”.
On day one, Trump said he would cancel any restrictions on US energy production – of which the Clean Power Plan is one. The policy, aimed at fighting anthropogenic climate change, works by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by phasing out coal plants and allowing states to outline their own renewable and emissions reduction targets to reach the overarching goal of reducing carbon emissions by 32% by 2030 compared with 2005 levels.
Therefore, the Plan puts restrictions on coal plants for their harmful emissions which Trump vowed to ressurrect.
“I will cancel job-killing restrictions on the production of American energy, including shale energy and clean coal, creating many millions of high-paying jobs,” Trump said.
“That's what we want – that's what we've been waiting for.”
For a concerted roll-back on regulations restriction American energy, the real estate tycoon pledged that for every new regulation brought into force, two existing regulations will be eliminated.