Elections have consequences, and one of those is watching Obama’s expansive regulation world go kaput
(Reuters) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will replace Obama-era carbon and clean water regulations and open up a national debate on climate change in 2018, part of a list of priorities for the year that also includes fighting lead contamination in public drinking water.
The agenda, laid out by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in an exclusive interview with Reuters on Tuesday, marks an extension of the agency’s efforts under President Donald Trump to weaken or kill regulations the administration believes are too broad and harm economic growth, but which environmentalists say are critical to human health.
â€The climate is changing. That’s not the debate. The debate is how do we know what the ideal surface temperature is in 2100?… I think the American people deserve an open honest transparent discussion about those things,†said Pruitt, who has frequently cast doubt on the causes and implications of global warming.
Pruitt said among the EPA’s top priorities for 2018 will be to replace the Clean Power Plan, former President Barack Obama’s centerpiece climate change regulation which would have slashed carbon emissions from power plants. The EPA began the process of rescinding the regulation last year and is taking input on what should replace it.
“A proposed rule will come out this year and then a final rule will come out sometime this year,†he said. He did not give any details on what the rule could look like, saying the agency was still soliciting comments from stakeholders.
Also on the docket is rewriting Obama’s crazy Waters of the USA rule, hopefully doing away with that expansive, massive big government control rule, which allowed the government regulate every pond, every puddle, every stream.
Pruitt is also looking at biofuels rules and laws. And, cutting the number of employees at the EPA, getting rid of the dead wood.
