Trump administration aims to challenge sitting environmental policies

The last eight years of environmental policy will be challenged in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.

Trump plans to repeal some of President Barack Obama’s environmental regulations while implementing policies that would encourage oil, coal and natural gas production.

He also appointed Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and a climate change-skeptic, as head of his environmental transition team.

Dan Crawford, director of governmental relations for the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters, said he was worried about Ebell’s potential to be appointed as director of the Environmental Protection Agency.

“The thought of a climate (change) denier being involved with the EPA is greatly concerning, and it’s something the American people should be paying attention to,” he said.

Brian Powell, spokesperson for the North Carolina Conservation Network, said in an email he is also troubled by Trump’s potential appointees.

“These candidates, if confirmed, are likely to offer private corporations full access to regulate to their own advantage at the expense of the environment and the health of the American people,” Powell said.

Mitch Kokai, spokesperson for the John Locke Foundation, said Trump’s environmental policies are going to align more with what’s best for the economy.

“(Trump) seems to be more along the side of folks who are interested in limiting government overreach and allowing market forces to play a larger role in determining the best environmental policy,” he said.

Victor Flatt, professor of environmental law at the UNC School of Law, said regardless of the next EPA director, the future for fighting against climate change will be more difficult.

“I’m hoping that doesn’t completely derail all the progress we’ve made,” he said.

Trump has also promised to repeal the Clean Power Plan, a policy from the Obama administration to reduce carbon pollution from power plants, if the Supreme Court doesn’t first undo the plan.

Flatt said the Clean Power Plan would soon be outdated in four to five years anyway because the goals for 2032 were too low and some states had already met them.

He said despite Tump’s promises, the expanding market for cheaper renewable resources will block increases in coal production.

“The cost of a lot of renewables and natural gas are just going to keep undercutting coal,” he said. “No one is going to make a new coal plant and eventually the market is going to make coal obsolete.”

Powell said he hopes the American people will defend the environment.

“If we do see attacks to our environmental and public health protections, we will fight those rollbacks — as we fought the numerous rollbacks proposed by the N.C. legislature and Governor McCrory over the past four years,” he said.

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