Trump replacement for Obama climate plan worse than doing nothing - study
Source: The Guardian
Trump replacement for Obama climate plan worse than doing nothing – study
Administration’s alternative to clean power plan would let emissions ‘rebound’ via coal-fired power plants, researchers find
Oliver Milman
Wed 16 Jan 2019 06.00 GMT Last modified on Wed 16 Jan 2019 06.02 GMT
The Trump administration’s replacement for the linchpin Obama-era plan to combat climate change would increase greenhouse gas emissions in much of the US more than doing nothing at all, according to new research.
Planet-warming emissions would “rebound” under the Trump policy, researchers found, as it delays the retirement of coal-fired power plants. Carbon dioxide emissions would be 8.7% higher in 18 states and Washington DC by 2030, compared with having no policy at all.
The study by Harvard comes ahead of a congressional hearing on Wednesday to confirm Andrew Wheeler as the administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency. Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist and an architect of the new Trump emissions policy, has been acting EPA administrator since his predecessor, Scott Pruitt, departed last July.
“This new plan essentially gives out a free pass for carbon pollution,” said Kathleen Lambert, an expert in climate change and public health at Harvard who coauthored the research. “It’s a recipe for increased carbon emissions. It will make it even harder for the US to meet its emissions targets under the Paris accord and sets us in exactly the opposite direction we need to go in.”
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/15/trump-replacement-obama-climate-plan
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Related: The Affordable Clean Energy Rule and the Impact of Emissions Rebound on Carbon Dioxide and Criteria Air Pollutant Emissions (IOPscience)
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