Trump signs order to roll back Obama-era climate change measures

Washington, March 29

Keeping up his campaign promise, US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to roll back his predecessor Barack Obama's climate change measures, a move slammed as "irresponsible" and "spiteful assault" by the Opposition and environmental groups.

"With today's executive action, I am taking historic steps to live the restrictions on American energy, to reverse government intrusion and to cancel job-killing regulations," Trump said after signing the order at the headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) yesterday.

"My action today is the latest in the series of steps to create American jobs and to grow American wealth. We're ending the theft of American prosperity and rebuilding our beloved country," Trump said.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Trump strongly believed that protecting environment and "promoting our economy are not mutually exclusive goals."       

"This executive order will help to ensure that we have clean air and clean water without sacrificing economic growth and job creation," he said.

The Executive Order directs all agencies to conduct a review of all regulations, rules, policies and guidance documents that put up roadblocks to domestic energy production and identify the ones that are not either mandated by law or actually contributing to the public good.

It also rescinds a number of the previous administration's actions that do not reflect this administration's priorities.

The order directs the EPA to take several actions to reflect this president's environmental and economic goals, including a review of the new performance standards for coal- fired and natural gas-fired plants that amount to a de facto ban on new coal plant production in the US.

In his address, Trump said his measures would start a new energy revolution.

"We are going to start a new energy revolution, one that celebrates American production on American soil. We want to make our goods here, instead of shipping them in from other countries. All over the world, they ship in, ship in, take the Americans' money, take the money, go home, take our jobs, take our companies, no longer folks, no longer," he said.

"We believe in those really magnificent words, made in the USA. We will unlock job producing natural gas, oil and shale energy. We will produce American coal to power American industry. We will transport American energy through American pipelines made with American steel, made with American steel, can you believe somebody would actually say that?" he said.

The opposition Democratic party and environmental groups, however, slammed Trump for his latest move on energy and climate change.

"We risk throwing away decades of hard work growing the clean energy economy and connecting our nation's workers to the jobs of the future with this partisan and misguided action," said Indian-American Congressman Ami Bera, who is a Ranking Member of the Space Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.  —PTI