(19 Jun 2019) Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler says the Trump administration will be on the right side of history, following completion to one of its biggest rollbacks of environmental rules Wednesday.
Wheeler made the comment following a news conference in Washington, where the former coal industry lobbyist signed a replacement rule that gives states leeway in deciding whether to require efficiency upgrades at existing coal plants.
"What this regulation does is it follows the Clean Air Act and we're basing it on past precedent of court decisions," he said. "I think time will be on our side on that and I think the courts will be on our side on that," he added as he answered a reporter who questioned him about contradicting data on emissions.
The Affordable Clean Energy rule replaces a landmark Obama-era effort that sought to wean the nation's electrical grid off coal-fired power plants and their climate-damaging pollution.
The move follows up on pledges by candidate and then president Donald Trump to rescue the U.S. coal industry, which hit near-record numbers of coal plant closings last year in the face of competition from cheaper natural gas and renewables. It also accomplishes one of the biggest yet of dozens of environmental regulatory rollbacks now under way by the Trump administration.
The message, in defiance of federal scientists' increasingly urgent warnings that the world must cut fossil fuel emissions to stave off the worst of global warming: Coal is here to stay.
The rule will go into effect shortly after publication in the Federal Register. Environmental groups pledge court challenges.

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