Environmentalists, health groups and others are calling the Trump administration’s single public hearing on abolishment of the Clean Power Plan in West Virginia Tuesday “a sham.”
The plan to require power plants to cut carbon emissions was a centerpiece of the Obama administration’s effort address climate change. But utilities don’t like it, and the coal industry says it will result in job losses.
Lisa Pohlmann of the Natural Resources Council of Maine says the hearing’s location and limited public input make clear where the administration’s priorities are.
“This is a public health issue, and it really does seem like the Trump administration is putting the interests of the coal companies far and away more important than the public health of millions of people who are affected by climate change, and will be affected for years to come,” she says.
Pohlmann says the public will have three months to submit online comments about the proposed rollback of the rule. That’s in contrast to multiple hearings across the country and a six-month public comment period under the Obama administration when the plan was first proposed.
