Energy, Environmental Wish List Compiled for Trump
Bloomberg BNA highlights CEI’s energy and environment agenda for the Trump administration.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free market group based in Washington, D.C., in mid-December also highlighted the Clean Power Plan in a recommended agenda for the Trump administration to grow the economy. The organization recommended that Trump instruct the Justice Department to side with the states and industry organizations that are challenging the Clean Power Plan if the case is considered by the U.S. Supreme Court.
CEI also said Trump could direct the EPA to work on a replacement regulation to the Clean Power Plan that is limited to “within-the-fenceline” measures, such as energy-efficiency improvements in coal-fired power plants rather than the EPA’s current approach of favoring renewable generation or shifting from coal-fired utilities to those burning natural gas.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s recommendations aren’t limited to the Clean Power Plan: the organization released a five-part policy plan that included white papers on energy policy and regulatory reform. After eight years of criticizing the direction of the EPA under Obama, the free market group is looking to Trump to restrict the power of regulatory agencies like the EPA. Two members of the CEI, Myron Ebell and Christopher Horner, are on a “landing team” sent by Trump to the EPA to review agency rules and operations.
Recommendations included in the memos, which were authored by members of the Competitive Enterprise Institute who are not part of the Trump transition team, include a series of policy steps to reduce U.S. involvement in international climate policy.
Chief among the recommended “first steps” for the Trump administration is to end U.S. participation in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. Trump said during the campaign that he would withdraw the U.S. from the agreement, but in November told the New York Times that he has “an open mind to it”
Read the full article at Bloomberg BNA.