Trump In ‘Trouble’ Over Obama’s Climate Protection Rule

A coalition of 22 US states and seven cities has dragged the United States president, Donald Trump and its administration to court for allegedly easing restrictions on coal-burning power plants in the country.

Naija News understands that the latest lawsuit by the various US communities and Metropolitan cities could determine how much leverage the federal government has to fight climate change in the future.

The court challenge, led by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, argued that the Trump administration’s E.P.A. had no basis for weakening an Obama-era regulation that set the first ever national limits on carbon dioxide pollution from power plants.

The Obama-era rule, the Clean Power Plan, required states to implement plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2022, and encouraged that to happen by closing heavily polluting plants and instead generating electricity using natural gas or renewable energy.

Carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere is a major contributor to global warming because it traps the sun’s heat.