What to look for on Smart Talk Wednesday, August 22, 2018:
Former President Barack Obama once called the Clean Power Plan enacted during his administration “the single-most important step America has ever taken to fight climate change.” Under Clean Power, each state was assigned emission reduction targets. Pennsylvania would have been required to reduce carbon emissions by about 33%.
The Clean Power Plan was challenged in court and never took effect.
Tuesday, the Trump Administration announced it is replacing the Clean Power Plan with its “Affordable Clean Energy Rule.” It would give states more authority over regulating greenhouse gas emissions from coal-burning power plants within their borders.
President Donald Trump said in a statement that the Clean Power Plan was intrusive and killed jobs. When Trump ran for president he promised to stop the Obama Administration’s “war on coal” as he called it. The Obama plan was to cut the nation’s reliance on coal and move toward more renewable energies.
Rob Altenburg and Christina Simeone
On Wednesday’s Smart Talk, we discuss the new rule with Rob Altenburg, formerly with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and now with the environmental group PennFuture, as well as Christina Simeone, Director of External Affairs at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
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