With the transportation (i.e., fuel) and power (i.e., coal)
sectors accounting for a majority of the carbon emissions in the U.S.,
according to the EPA, the Trump administration’s moves to freeze his
predecessor’s fuel efficiency standards and relax pollution rules for power
plants needing renovation put at risk the declining trend of emissions in 2018.
The implications for climate change (e.g., hotter summers) were stark,
according to Janet McCabe, who had been Obama’s EPA air chief.[1]
The Trump administration’s proposal to allow the states, including West
Virginia, to set their own rules for regulating coal was, according to the New
York Times, “the administration’s strongest and broadest effort yet to address
what the president has long described as a regulatory ‘war on coal’.”[2]
An implication is that carbon emissions from coal in the U.S. would likely
increase as a result, even though large states like California and New York
could be expected to tighten the rules. The interesting point about turning the
regulations to the states revolves around federalism. Constitutionally
speaking, should the states regulate the carbon emissions from coal?
The full essay is at "States Regulating Coal."
1. Lisa Friedman, “Trump’s
Plan for Coal Emissions: Let Coal States Regulate Them,” The New York Times, August 18, 2018.
2. Ibid.
