The president’s efforts to roll back regulations and roll back federal climate policies have only emboldened the Trump campaign, a Republican strategist said, adding that the president and his team “will be at war” with the federal government and their allies in Congress to undermine the Clean Power Plan and other efforts to fight climate change.
Trump has been trying to rollback climate policies since the election.
His decision to end the Obama-era rule requiring states to get federal approval before building new coal-fired power plants, and his attempt to repeal the Clean Air Act’s protections for people living near power plants have drawn criticism from state and local officials.
The Trump administration has said the move is needed to reduce emissions, which the U.S. has pledged to reduce by 26 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.
Trump’s administration is also under scrutiny for what some Republicans are calling a “coup” by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which was accused by the U and the EPA of attempting to sabotage the EPA’s investigation of a coal-burning power plant in Wyoming.
Trump had threatened to withhold federal funding for NOAA unless it was replaced by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, an anti-government, anti-regulation group that has repeatedly been accused of anti-science and anti-business views.
The Competitive Enterprise institute has been at the center of several lawsuits filed against the federal agency.
Trump administration spokespeople told Axios that the EPA is in the process of identifying an administrator for the newly created EPA Administrator position, and it is unclear when this person will be confirmed.
Trump did not specifically mention the new position in his remarks at the White House, but he noted that the federal office was “one of the great accomplishments of my presidency” during a news conference Thursday morning.
“It’s a huge job,” he said, “and I’ve been really proud of the fact that the administration has taken it on, and we’re going to get it done.”
But some of the new EPA Administrator nominees have said that they will be focused on fighting climate change and energy efficiency, and that they don’t want to undermine efforts to address climate change, Politico reported.
For instance, Scott Pruitt, Trump’s nominee for EPA Administrator, is a former member of the EPA Advisory Council on Environmental Science, a panel that developed the Clean Water Rule.
Pruitt has also been critical of the Clean Energy and Security Act, which aims to strengthen the nation’s air and water pollution limits and limits on carbon emissions from coal- and natural gas-fired electricity plants.
Pruitt also opposed a proposal to allow the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have delivered oil from Canada to refineries on the Gulf Coast.
He has also said that the U is “not going to be a leader on climate change” and that he supports the EPA Administrator nominee for that position, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt.
Pruitt is also an outspoken critic of the Paris climate agreement, and has expressed doubts about whether the U can make progress toward curbing greenhouse gas emissions from the planet.
Pruitt, who is the highest ranking Republican in the Senate, has also repeatedly questioned whether the Paris accord was really necessary, and said he believes it should be renegotiated to get more favorable terms for energy companies.
“We need to get this right,” Pruitt said in February.
“This deal is a disaster for America, for the world and for our economy.”
Pruitt also expressed doubt that climate change is a hoax.
“Climate change is real.
There is no such thing as a hoax,” Pruitt told The Washington Post in February, in response to a question about whether climate change was real.