Reading News 4U: White House seeking to slash renewable energy research: report
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
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| Spending for the Energy Department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is currently set at $2.04 billion, but would drop to $575.5 million under the proposal reported by the Washington Post (AFP Photo/DON EMMERT) |
VietPress USA (Jan. 31, 2018): While China is now becoming the World's largest Solar energy. China builds the largest floating Solar system.
During the former President Barack Obama, the Clean Power Plan was an Obama administration policy aimed at combating anthropogenic climate change (global warming) that was first proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in June 2014. Accoring to Wikipedia, it is widely expected to be eliminated under President Donald Trump, who signed an executive order on March 28, 2017 mandating the EPA to review the plan and following his announcement on June 1, 2017, of United States withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. In August 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted the EPA an additional 60 days to review the CPP and submit their position to the court, before continuing the process to settle the case about the legality of the CPP.
The final version of the plan was unveiled by President Obama on August 3, 2015. The 460-page rule (RIN 2060–AR33) titled "Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units" was published in the Federal Register on October 23, 2015. The Obama administration designed the plan to lower the carbon dioxide emitted by power generators.
But it was revealed on October 4, 2017, that the EPA under the Trump Administration was planning to end the Clean Power Plan. Two days later, it was revealed that President Trump was considering alternatives to the plan through public discussion, and guidelines on how they intended to repeal the plan were leaked as well. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced the formal process to change EPA rules and repeal the plan would begin on October 10. Pruitt then signed a formal proposal that would lead to the repeal of the Clean Power Plan. The standard federal regulatory procedures to implement or change a regulation will likely to take up to two years. Potential legal challenges may cause delays to repeal the regulation.
It is clear that President Donald Trump has focused heavily on prioritizing the extraction of fossil fuels and their export around the world, especially the coal sector, which has long been in decline. He quoted in his first State of the Union address about his clean coal policy.
The Trump administration will ask Congress to cut funding for clean energy and energy efficiency programs by 72 percent in this year's budget, according to a report in the Washington Post, underscoring its preference
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https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house-seeking-slash-renewable-energy-research-report-234406122.html
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White House seeking to slash renewable energy research: report
The Post said it had obtained draft documents that outlined the administration's starting point for negotiations for the 2018 budget, set to be unveiled in February.
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Congress, which is ultimately tasked with deciding appropriations, could push back -- but the documents signal the White House's policy priorities, the newspaper said.
President Donald Trump has focused heavily on prioritizing the extraction of fossil fuels and their export around the world, especially the coal sector, which has long been in decline.
The Post said the proposed cuts were deeper than those the Trump administration sought for the current fiscal year, but was unable to implement because of a budget impasse in Congress, which has passed a stop-gap measure funding the federal government into February.
Spending for the Energy Department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is currently set at $2.04 billion. It would drop to $575.5 million under the proposal.
"It shows that we've made no inroads in terms of convincing the administration of our value, and if anything, our value based on these numbers has dropped," a department employee told the Post on condition of anonymity.
Last week, the administration approved steep tariffs on imported solar panels in a move decried by the industry, which said it would lead to thousands of job losses and stunt investment.
Trump's energy department last year proposed providing federal subsidies to nuclear and coal power plants, arguing the move was necessary to make the national grid more resilient to crises.
But the US energy watchdog terminated the proposal, finding it neither justified nor reasonable.
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