EPA Has ‘Plenty of Tools’ to Battle Climate Change Without Obama Regulations, Experts Say

The Washington Examiner discusses the Trump administration’s proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan with Myron Ebell.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt could help the U.S. make a significant dent in emissions of carbon dioxide if he were to start a sincere effort to replace the Obama-era Clean Power Plan with a more modest regulation, experts say.

…

Even the fiercest critics of the Clean Power Plan say Pruitt may have no choice but to act because the EPA is bound to regulate emissions of carbon and other greenhouse gas under a 2009 agency rule known as the endangerment finding.

“I am not a lawyer, but lawyers have made that argument quite a few times, and I listen to it,” said Myron Ebell of the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute, who led President Trump’s EPA transition team. “They will need some replacement.”

…

Ebell predicts that an EPA regulation focused on individual power plants would have a more modest impact on emissions. He argues the Clean Air Act grants the executive branch limited authority to make a meaningful carbon regulation.

“What [the Trump administration] will try to do is say, yes, we will abide by the letter of the law and regulate greenhouse gas emissions using the tools the Clean Air Act has allowed for in regulating individual power plants,” Ebell said. “Doing what’s in the boundaries of the law turns out to be very modest.”

Ebell contends only Congress can create stronger policy.

“If the American public really wanted greenhouse gas emission reductions, it’s up to Congress to do that effectively, instead of the executive branch rigging the Clean Air Act so you get something,” Ebell said.

Read the full article at The Washington Examiner.