US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order reviewing the Clean Power Plan, which established greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction requirements for the country’s existing fossil fuel-fired power plants.
The executive order is seen as the first step in reversing the legislation, implementation of which had been stayed by the Supreme Court in February 2016, pending resolution of legal challenges currently before the DC Circuit court.
Baker Botts environmental partner Megan Berge said: “The executive order is the first step on what likely will be a long and uncertain road to shifting the federal government’s role in climate regulation.”
The executive order directs the Environmental Protection Agency to start an administrative review of both the Clean Power Plan and the rule that sets GHG emission reduction requirements for new, modified and reconstructed power plants, said Baker Botts.
It also directs the White House Council on Environmental Quality to rescind its National Environmental Policy Act guidance on GHGs that requires all agencies to consider climate change impacts in their environmental permitting process.
Image: President Trump (Gage Skidmore)
Trump reviews Clean Power Plan
Executive order signed that could roll back US climate legislation
By EBS