DUK Duke Energy Corp New

By Louise Radnofsky 

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday taking steps to unravel the most contentious climate-change policies of his predecessor.

"My administration is putting an end to the war on coal," Mr. Trump said in remarks ahead of the official signing at the Environmental Protection Agency, repeating a campaign slogan in which he promised to bring back mining jobs.

He said he was ending a "crushing attack" on the industry and paring back regulations that impeded job creation but that he still believed his administration could ensure clean water and clean energy.

"We're getting rid of the bad ones," he said, adding that his administration had taken other steps to boost energy production, including expediting approvals of two controversial oil pipelines, Dakota Access and Keystone XL.

The order formally reviews President Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan, which would have required utilities to reduce power plant carbon-dioxide emissions to 32% below 2005 levels by 2030. It also initiates review of a parallel regulation that would call for emission cuts to power plants not yet built.

The order will pull back August 2016 guidance from the Council on Environmental Quality on climate change and official estimates of the social cost of carbon, methane and nitrous oxide and rescind a temporary ban on new coal leases on federal lands, which Mr. Obama's Interior Department issued in early 2016.

Mr. Trump was flanked by coal miners, Vice President Mike Pence, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt.

Mr. Pruitt said the president was "rejecting the narrative that this country cannot be pro-energy and pro-environment." He added that under his leadership, "We're not going to allow regulations here at the EPA to pick winners and losers."

The moves are all but certain to meet legal and political resistance from environmentalists and many Democrats.

"Ultimately, litigation will keep these agencies on course, but this order is a big waste of time and effort, done to appease a dirty industry and right-wing climate-denial fanatics," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat.

Rep. Ted Deutch, a Florida Democrat, said, "The president fails to realize that climate change is not just a vague, distant concept. His actions will accelerate the effects of climate change, threatening our economic and national security."

Referring to Mr. Trump's Florida resort, he said, "I hope the president invested in flood insurance, because when Mar-a-Lago is underwater, he will have himself to blame."

At the signing, Mr. Trump singled out Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, of West Virginia, one of about two dozen members of Congress present, according to the White House.

Ms. Capito said the president "kept his promise to roll back one of the most harmful acts of overreach by the Obama administration." She said the Obama-era rules "would have completely decimated West Virginia's vital coal industry while having no meaningful climate impact."

Most scientists agree human activity is a major contributor to Earth's rising aggregate temperature. Trump administration officials have sounded a variety of notes on the issue. Mr. Pruitt has doubted the scientific consensus that human activity is a major contributor to climate change. Mr. Trump mocked climate change as a serious matter while on the campaign trail and said he would aim to withdraw the U.S. from a December 2015 climate deal signed in Paris.

Write to Louise Radnofsky at louise.radnofsky@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 28, 2017 16:06 ET (20:06 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.