On Tuesday afternoon, March 28, the president signed a sweeping Executive Order in an attempt to roll back protections for clean air, clean water, American taxpayers, and the global climate that were put in place under the Obama Administration.
There’s no sugar-coating it: this is not good. The order begins to undo several policies that WORC members worked hard to put in place. Revoking the various safeguards and policies targeted in the executive order is sure to prevent the United States from meeting its obligations under the Paris Climate Accord.
The order is not a surprise, however. It has been evident since November 9 that the new president would seek to unravel gains in climate and environmental policy made during the Obama Administration.
But the order does not accomplish the goals that the White House claims. In fact, the executive order threatens America’s energy independence by empowering oil and gas drillers to continue to waste valuable, nonrenewable domestic energy sources with unlimited venting and flaring of natural gas.
Rescinding a temporary pause on federal coal leases does nothing to change market dynamics, spur coal development, or help coal communities succeed economically. Regarding the Clean Power Plan and coal jobs, University of Wyoming energy economist Rob Godby told the New York Times, “The problem with coal jobs has not been CO2 regulation, so this will probably not bring back coal jobs.”
The specific contents of the order make it clear that the president’s power to undo environmental safeguards and climate protections is much more limited than he suggests. While the order mentions over a dozen Obama-era environmental and climate protections, it mostly directs agencies to “review” the various orders and regulations, not repeal them, leaving plenty of loose ends for WORC and its allies to organize to stop the Trump Administration from carrying out their anti-environment agenda.
The following tables sum up what the executive order does and a few challenges the Administration will face in its attempts to carry out the order and dismantle the common-sense protections put in place under President Obama:
I. Clean Power Plan
| What is it? | The Clean Power Plan (CPP) is Obama’s cornerstone climate policy. It regulates carbon dioxide as an air pollutant under the Clean Air Act, limiting the amount of carbon pollution emitted from power plants. The plan was written in a process that included public input from all over the country, including every single state. |
| What does the EO do? | The order directs the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to rewrite the CPP, a years-long public process. |
| How is Trump limited? | Trump would like to get rid of the CPP with the stroke of a pen, but he can’t. To withdraw the plan, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has to go through the same process that Obama’s EPA went through to write it. That will take years. In the process, Pruitt will face public outcry from Americans and states as well as the cold, hard facts of climate science: the EPA has to demonstrate a rationale for why the change is justified. Because Pruitt denies human-caused climate change and the rest of the world does not, this won’t be easy for him. Whatever rationale Pruitt invents for refusing to address climate change has to be solid enough for a federal judge, since it’s sure to end up in court. |
II. Pause on Federal Coal Leasing
| What is it? | In early 2016, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell initiated a review of the broken federal coal leasing program to ensure that it is meeting the nation’s energy needs. Along with this review, the Secretary instituted a pause on federal coal leasing. |
| What does the EO do? | Rescinds the pause and directs Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to “amend or withdraw” the order that initiated the comprehensive review of the federal coal program. The next day, Secretary Zinke formally rescinded the pause on leasing and ended review of the program. |
| How is Trump limited? | Removing the pause will have little or no effect on coal production or leasing. Coal is rapidly losing market share to cheaper energy sources like natural gas and renewables, leading to a historic downturn in mining. No coal company has bought a single ton of federal coal in the Powder River Basin since 2012, a trend that shows no sign of letting up for years. |
III. Methane Waste Prevention
| What is it? | Under the Obama Administration, both the EPA and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) required that oil and gas drillers stop wasting methane by venting and flaring it instead of capturing and selling valuable natural gas to consumers. |
| What does the EO do? | Directs EPA and BLM to review and rewrite rules so that drillers can continue to waste valuable resources and pollute the air. Somehow, the White House believes it is in the interest of “energy independence” to empower oil drillers to continue to waste nonrenewable domestic energy supplies. |
| How is Trump limited? | Just like with the CPP, the White House doesn’t have the authority to simply strike down these methane waste prevention standards. Instead, for each rule, Trump has to direct his agencies to write a new rule to replace the old one, take public input on that replacement, demonstrate a fact-based rationale for doing so, and survive the inevitable legal challenges. |
The Administration’s last-minute decision to include the methane rule in Tuesday’s order could be an admission that the Senate doesn’t have the votes to kill the rule with the Congressional Review Act. Republicans in the House have passed a resolution under the obscure Congressional Review Act (CRA), a controversial legislative tool that allows Congress to repeal and permanently block certain rules with a simple majority.
But the Senate has failed to gather enough votes to concur, despite Republican control of the chamber. BLM’s “review” of the rule as required by the executive order is far preferable to WORC than a CRA resolution, since the latter would strike the rule immediately with no consideration or public input, and would prevent the BLM from fixing it without permission from Congress.
The executive order also makes some problematic tweaks to the country’s environmental review and permitting laws:
- It revokes guidelines for taking climate change into consideration when considering the environmental impact of a major project or policy.
- It effectively eliminates the Social Cost of Carbon — a mathematical formula that monetizes the environmental damage of carbon pollution. Because the Social Cost of Carbon arose from a 2007 court order in the first place, it is not clear that it is legal for the Administration to eliminate its use.
There is no denying that Tuesday’s action is a big step in the wrong direction when it comes to protecting our clean air and clean water and fighting catastrophic climate change. The president has made it clear that he does not intend to show leadership on these issues. At the same time, this executive order creates opportunities for WORC and its member groups to stand together and organize to stop Trump’s anti-environment agenda.