The Trump administration, under the direction of Andrew Wheeler (EPA director), have discarded the law which required the electricity generation to emit less CO2 which was going to mean that most coal plants would shut. Many people have argued that this is too hard on the coal plant owners. Nothing could be further from the truth: many of these plants were due to be closed in the near future anyway. Furthermore, this law would not have closed all coal plants, merely the dirtiest of them all. Not that it’s any surprise but this put paid to Trump’s claim of “clean coal”, a phrase that as far as emissions is stupid anyway
Under this new rule the EPA acknowledges global warming but states that they can’t do anything about it. Analysis shows that the USA will be one of the countries hardest hit by global warming and yet they are incapable of making you from the smallest changes to try and stop it happening.
It is certainly true that Trump has an incredibly low approval rating, but I find it scary that there is still a significant likelihood he gets reelected. Four years of the world’s most polluting country (per person) being led by someone who at best doesn’t understand that, or at worst denies the reality of human-caused global warming, are more than enough. Basically all climate models suggest that we will need to take significant steps in the next few years and therefore we cannot afford for Trump to get an extra four years. Perhaps the one positive is that Trump’s poorly thought out policy on this has forced many Americans to recognise the truth that global warming is a threat and needs to be dealt with.
