On Tuesday, President Trump will sign an executive order he says will roll back many of former President Barack Obama's measures aimed to fight global warming.
Trump will ask the Environmental Protection Agency to review the Clean Power Plan, which limits the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and has long been opposed by Republican governors. He will also lift a ban on new coal leases on federal lands, which Obama put into place for three years in 2016 so the program could be modernized. A senior White House official informed reporters about the executive order Monday night, and at one point denied knowing that climate change can have a devastating impact on the economy, The Associated Press reports.
Earlier this month, EPA head Scott Pruitt stated that he does not think carbon dioxide is one of the primary contributors to climate change, a departure from the views of most scientists, Americans, and his own agency. The agency's former administrator, Gina McCarthy, said the Trump administration wants "us to travel back to when smokestacks damaged our health and polluted our air, instead of taking every opportunity to support clean jobs of the future. This is not just dangerous; it's embarrassing to us and our business on a global scale to be dismissing opportunities for new technologies, economic growth, and U.S. leadership."
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