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WASHINGTON
— The Trump administration will repeal the Clean Power Plan, the
centerpiece of President Obama’s effort to fight climate change, and
will ask the public to recommend ways it could be replaced, according to
an internal E.P.A. document.
The
draft proposal represents the administration’s first substantive step
toward rolling back the plan, which was designed to curb greenhouse gas
emissions from the power sector, after months of presidential tweets and
condemnations of Mr. Obama’s efforts to reduce climate-warming
pollution.
But
it also lays the groundwork for new, presumably weaker, regulations by
asking for the public and industry to offer ideas for a replacement.
The
E.P.A. document, “October 2017 Tiering List,” lays out upcoming policy
issues of high priority for the agency’s office of air and radiation,
which oversees air pollution policies.
“The
agency is issuing a proposal to repeal the rule,” the document states.
It says the agency will issue a formal notice of its intention to
develop a new rule “similarly intended to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions from existing fossil-fueled electric utility generating units
and to solicit information for the agency to consider in developing such
a rule.”
The document does not explain how the Environmental Protection Agency
will justify to the courts the decision to eliminate the regulation.
Several industry attorneys familiar with the agency’s plans said they
expected Mr. Pruitt to argue that the Obama administration relied on an
overly-broad reading of federal clean air laws in writing the Clean
Power Plan.
President
Trump has vowed since the campaign to “get rid” of the Obama-era
environmental regulations. He has called the Clean Power Plan “stupid”
and “job killing,” and in an executive order
issued in March he directed Scott Pruitt, the E.P.A. administrator, to
dismantle the rules. Last month, Mr. Trump appeared to claim he had
already done so, telling a crowd in Alabama, “Did you see what I did to
that? Boom, gone.”
Killing
the regulation also has been a high priority for Mr. Pruitt, who as
attorney general of Oklahoma sued to overturn it in court.
But
in recent weeks industry groups have pressed the Trump administration
to fashion a new, narrower measure in its stead. Many have argued that
creating such a replacement, rather than simply repealing the Clean
Power Plan, is necessary to avoid lawsuits. Under a landmark agency
determination known as the endangerment finding, the E.P.A. is required
to regulate carbon emissions.
Mr.
Pruitt has been under pressure from interest groups that deny the
scientific consensus on climate change — that it is occurring and caused
by human emissions — to overturn that determination. The E.P.A.
document does not indicate Mr. Pruitt’s plans, but creating a new
regulation implicitly accepts that the federal government has a role in
addressing the reduction of carbon dioxide.
It
remains unclear when the agency will formally repeal the rule. Liz
Bowman, an E.P.A. spokeswoman, declined to comment on the document or
plans for the rule.
The
Clean Power Plan, which required states to cut greenhouse gas emissions
from existing power plants by 32 percent by 2030 relative to 2005 has
been tied up in litigation. The United States Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia had set an Oct. 7 deadline for the E.P.A. to show
progress in its decision-making.
Brian
Deese, who served as a senior adviser on climate change to Mr. Obama,
said the E.P.A. was buying time. Asking the public for ideas, he said,
is what an agency does when it is uncertain about how to proceed.
Consideration of a new regulation could take months or even years, he
said.
“They’re trying to walk this tightrope,” Mr. Deese said.
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