||| FROM REUTERS |||
The administration of President Donald Trump on Thursday plans to announce the repeal of a scientific finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health, removing the legal basis for federal climate regulations.
Its repeal would remove the regulatory requirements to measure, report, certify, and comply with federal greenhouse gas emission standards for cars, but may not initially apply to stationary sources such as power plants
The transportation and power sectors are each responsible for around a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas output, according to EPA figures.
**If you are reading theOrcasonian for free, thank your fellow islanders. If you would like to support theOrcasonian CLICK HERE to set your modestly-priced, voluntary subscription. Otherwise, no worries; we’re happy to share with you.**
This seems ominous on the surface, but the EPA’s endangerment rule is so baked into the current system and has already survived so many previous lawsuits that it can’t be revoked with an impulsive signature of the Big Orange Moron’s permanent marker.
So now, get ready for… more lawsuits! Everyone from the states (particularly California), to the NGOs (CBD, EDF, NRDC, and others), to the electricity companies (including some who burn fossil fuels but heavily invested in regulatory compliance), to groups of school kids all over the country.
Until all of those lawsuits are settled, no power plant operator, auto manufacturer, or coal mining company is going to do much about this. They know that they can’t fight economics, and that onshore wind and PV solar are already so cheap that new fossil plants would be astronomically expensive to build and operate.