A federal court agreed Friday to President Donald Trump’s request to pause litigation over the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan (CPP).
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision makes it easier for the Trump administration to repeal CPP, which was intended to limit carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from existing power plants to slow global warming.
The Circuit Court did not issue a decision on the legality of the rule, which was stayed by the Supreme Court last year.
Government lawyers asked to pause the case in March in response to Trump’s executive order instructing federal agencies to reconsider a number of Obama administration climate policies, including the CPP. Environmentalists ad urged the Circuit Court to reject the request.
“Last year, the Supreme Court granted a stay on the Clean Power Plan, so we always knew there were serious legal problems with this initiative from the Obama Administration and we welcome this news from the D.C. Circuit.” EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
If implemented, CPP would have cost a staggering $41 billion annually, which equates to about $10.74 a month for each American. Less than 39 percent of Americans would be willing to spend that level of extra cash to fight global warming, according to a poll. CPP would have eliminated most cheap coal and natural gas power with expensive sources like solar and wind.
CPP would have only averted 0.019° Celsius of warming by the year 2100, an amount so small it can’t be detected, according to analysis by the libertarian Cato Institute using models created by the EPA.
Trump promised to eliminate the CPP during his presidential campaign, drawing criticism from environmentalists and Democrats, but earning praise from coal miners and Republicans.
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