President Trump signed the “Energy Independence” executive order Tuesday afternoon eliminating many of former President Barack Obama’s key climate change policies.
A White House official said the order “directs the EPA to suspend, revise, or rescind the Clean Power Plan,” an Obama-era policy requiring states to cut carbon emissions from power plants, CBS News reported.
Joined by coal miners in the Environmental Protection Agency’s map room, Trump signed the order and called the Clean Power Plan a “crushing attack on American industry.”
“We have a very, very impressive group here to celebrate the start of a new era in American energy and production and job creation,” Trump said, adding that the order will eliminate “federal overreach.”
The executive order, which has not yet been released to the public, “directs all agencies to conduct a review of all regulation, rules, policies, and guidance documents that put up roadblocks to domestic energy production and identify the ones that are not either mandated by law or actually contributing to the public good,” according to White House press secretary Sean Spicer.
“It also rescinds a number of the previous administration’s actions that don’t reflect this administration’s priorities,” Spicer said.
The order also lifts a 14-month-old moratorium on new coal leases on federal lands, and mandates that every agency conduct a review identifying regulations and policies that serve as “impediments” to energy production, according to CNN.
While the sweeping order has climate scientists and environmental groups howling, the Trump administration insists the measures will benefit American workers, especially coal miners.
“I made them this promise: We will put our miners back to work,” Trump said Tuesday. “That is what this is all about … bringing back our jobs, bringing back our dreams and making America wealthy again.”
Mining jobs have been dwindling for years, in part because natural gas prices have fallen, and some industry experts say Trump’s efforts won’t reverse that.
The order doesn’t mention whether the US should stay in the Paris Agreement on climate change.
ExxonMobil has come out publicly urging the White House to remain in the pact.
“We believe that the United States is well positioned to compete within the framework of the Paris agreement, with abundant low-carbon resources such as natural gas, and innovative private industries, including the oil, gas and petrochemical sectors,” the company wrote in a letter to the White House.