--- title: Climate Change: Trump Ending Clean Power Plan Is Destructive description: The President has already weakened fuel efficiency for cars, greenlit the Keystone pipeline and now may gut the wind and solar power policy. canonical: https://time.com/4713767/trump-climate-clean-power/ author: Rhea Suh article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-27T19:53:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:29.686Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Trump's Anti-Climate Crusade Can Still Be Stopped og:description: Even as he plans to continue weakening protections og:url: https://time.com/4713767/trump-climate-clean-power/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22596dbd76d879f9/6988c006fb4eac46e989143b/great-barrier-reef-climate-change.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: great-barrier-reef-climate-change og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump's Anti-Climate Crusade Can Still Be Stopped twitter:description: Even as he plans to continue weakening protections twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22596dbd76d879f9/6988c006fb4eac46e989143b/great-barrier-reef-climate-change.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump's Anti-Climate Crusade Can Still Be Stopped > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: A Trump Presidency and the Future of Climate Change [Watch (HLS stream): A Trump Presidency and the Future of Climate Change](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/U3bhooK6.m3u8) (2:27)  _Published 2016-11-15. Donald Trump has repeatedly indicated that environmentalism is not his priority. Now, Climate scientists, policymakers and diplomats are questioning how his presidency will shape the future of climate change policy._ by [Rhea Suh](https://time.com/author/rhea-suh/) ## Rhea Suh Mar 27, 2017 7:53 PM UTC  In this October 2016 photo, a scientist measures coral mortality following bleaching on the northern Great Barrier Reef, Australia. In this October 2016 photo, a scientist measures coral mortality following bleaching on the northern Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Tane Sinclair-Taylor—ARC Center of Excellence/AP by [Rhea Suh](https://time.com/author/rhea-suh/) ## Rhea Suh Mar 27, 2017 7:53 PM UTC In the past two weeks, President [Donald Trump](http://time.com/tag/donald-trump/) has walked away from plans to cut the [carbon footprint](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2017/03/23/trump-and-automakers-have-criticized-obamas-fuel-standards-as-expensive-job-killers-a-new-study-disagrees/?utm%5Fterm=.5ad16b88102d) of our cars. He’s proposed defunding a plan to do the same to our power plants. He’s given a green light to the [Keystone XL Pipeline](http://time.com/4711421/keystone-xl-pipeline-state-department-approval/) and its dirty tar sands. Now he’s [poised](http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/26/politics/pruitt-trump-clean-power-order/), as early as this week, to issue orders that would deepen our reliance on the very fossil fuels driving climate chaos worldwide, by opening more federal lands to coal production and further weakening the [Clean Power Plan](http://time.com/4506099/christine-todd-whitman-clean-power-plan/), which promotes energy efficiency and renewable power from the wind and sun. This is not just another Trumpwellian sideshow. The President is sounding the retreat from the promise of [cleaner, smarter ways](https://www.e2.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/E2%5FCleanEnergyJobs%5FNational.pdf) to power our future. And he’s abandoning the American climate and clean-energy leadership that led the world to the historic [Paris Agreement](https://www.nrdc.org/resources/paris-agreement-climate-change) to cut the global carbon footprint. Since the Industrial Revolution ushered in the age of coal, oil and gas, humans have increased the level of [carbon dioxide](https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/weekly.html) in the atmosphere by more than 44%, to concentrations not seen in some 3 million years. Nearly half the increase has come since 1980, and 2016 marked the largest [one-year spike](ftp://aftp.cmdl.noaa.gov/products/trends/co2/co2%5Fgr%5Fgl.txt) on record. That carbon pollution traps the Earth’s heat and warms the planet. Last year was the [hottest](https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/201613) since global record-keeping began in 1880\. It was the third record-breaking year in a row. Of the 17 hottest years on record, 16 have occurred [in this 17-year-old century](https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/time-series/global/globe/land%5Focean/ytd/12/1880-2016). We all see the results: [rising seas](https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-sea-level), [mass extinctions](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/climate-change-will-accelerate-earths-sixth-mass-extinction-180955138/), the [spread of disease](http://www.who.int/globalchange/environment/en/chapter6.pdf), [widening deserts](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/24/world/asia/living-in-chinas-expanding-deserts.html), [vanishing sea ice](https://www.climate.gov/news-features/featured-images/2017-arctic-winter-maximum-and-antarctic-summer-minimum-both-set-new), [withering drought](https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/southwest) and raging [wildfires](http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/report/sectors/forests), [storms](https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/ClimateStorms/page2.php) and [floods](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/extreme-floods-may-be-the-new-normal/). This is our children’s future. It will get much worse unless we cut the carbon pollution that comes from burning fossil fuels. Political posturing will change nothing. Sound policies, though, can enable us to avert climate catastrophe. Our oceans are pleading an urgent case for change. They cover 70% of the Earth’s surface and absorb more than 90% of [global warming](https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-ocean-heat-content). It takes an enormous amount of heat to warm an ocean. Over roughly the past century, ocean temperatures are up 1.35 degrees Fahrenheit. Half that warming has come in the [past 20 years](http://research.noaa.gov/News/NewsArchive/LatestNews/TabId/684/ArtMID/1768/ArticleID/11572/Ocean-warming-doubles-in-recent-decades.aspx). That increase is a global average. Some waters have warmed much more. Parts of the [Gulf Stream](http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/sst/anomaly/2017/anomw.3.23.2017.gif), for example, are more than 5 degrees above the long-term average for those waters. The waters of the [Great Barrier Reef](http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/sst/anomaly/2017/anomp.3.23.2017.gif) are so warm they’re causing a mass die-off of coral, imperiling the marine life this natural treasure supports. The world has seen, though, that we can cut this climate-disrupting pollution, even as our economies expand, by investing in a clean-energy future. In 2016, for the third year in a row, [carbon pollution](https://www.iea.org/newsroom/news/2017/march/iea-finds-co2-emissions-flat-for-third-straight-year-even-as-global-economy-grew.html) from burning fossil fuels was flat, worldwide, while the global economy continued to grow. In the United States, carbon emissions fell 3%, to their lowest level since 1992, even as our economy grew an inflation-adjusted 1.6%. In China, the world’s largest carbon-emitter, that pollution fell 1%, amid 6.7% economic growth. Energy efficiency and a shift to clean power from the wind and sun are two important reasons for the progress — at home and abroad. In 2012, U.S. and foreign carmakers helped craft a plan to help do just that. These [clean-car and fuel-economy standards](https://www.epa.gov/regulations-emissions-vehicles-and-engines/midterm-evaluation-light-duty-vehicle-greenhouse-gas-ghg) put the industry on track to build cars by 2025 that would cut the carbon footprint of the cars, mini-vans, pickup trucks and SUVs we drive by nearly half, through gradual gains in the miles those vehicles get from a gallon of gasoline. Those standards are already saving consumers billions of dollars a year at the gas pump, cutting carbon pollution and helping to reduce our dependence on oil. Earlier this month, under industry pressure, Trump ordered a review of the standards with an eye toward walking back the progress we’re already making. His 2018 budget proposal, moreover, would defund a plan to cut the carbon pollution from the nation’s power plants. The 2015 [Clean Power Plan](https://www.epa.gov/cleanpowerplan/fact-sheet-overview-clean-power-plan) would reduce those emissions by nearly a third by 2030, giving power companies a decade and a half to achieve the goal. Trump is reportedly poised to direct his Administration this week to eviscerate those standards as well. Trump’s retreat, though, is not a done deal. Congress controls the budget and should fully fund responsible climate protections. And the car and power-plant standards were built on a solid edifice Trump can’t brush away with the stroke of a pen. They’re grounded in law, based on sound science and informed by the public interest, expressed in millions of public comments from across the spectrum from scholars, industry representatives, environmental advocates, economists and citizen concerns. It’s time now for citizens to weigh in once more and let the President know we won’t surrender to this threat. The stakes are too high for anything less. _Suh is president of the Natural Resources Defense Council and will be participating in the_ [_Peoples Climate Movement_](http://peoplesclimate.org) _march in Washington, D.C., and other cities across America on April 29._ ## Transcript [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Donald Trump has called climate change a hoax. It'll get cooler, it'll get warmer. It's called weather. Now that he's President- elect, here's what at stake for the future of the environment. Thank you. Paris Agreement which was negotiated last year and came into effect just a few weeks ago was a monumental step for addressing climate change. And setting a path forward for the coming decades to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Donald Trump has promised to cancel the Paris agreement, or at the very least, renegotiate it. Stop all payments of the United States tax dollars to UN Global Warming Programs. He does not have the authority to cancel it. It's an agreement with more than 190 countries. He also doesn't have the power to withdraw from it. Immediately at least, it would take at least three years to go through those processes. He does have the power to ignore it. It's unlikely that other countries will feel comfortable making big reductions in their greenhouse gas emissions, if the United States is not taking the lead. Another policy at stake is Obama's clean power plan. [ APPLAUSE ] Single most important step America has ever taken in the fight against global Climate change. Trump has said that he would cancel it. Environmental Protection, what they do is a disgrace. Every week they come out with new regulations. He has the authority to do that. He could direct the EPA to eliminate the clean power plan. We'll be fine with the environment. We can leave a little bit, but you can't destroy businesses He will definitely if he does face litigation from environmental groups that will argue that it's the EPA's role to do that. It's a long winding process. And certainly not something that he's going to be able to accomplish in his first 100 days. Environmentalists are trying to remain Optimistic and looking at a lot of the market trends that have resulted in the reduction in coal power and other greenhouse gas emissions. A lot of it is outside of the realm of regulation. But also trying to stay optimistic about the Paris agreement. Some of them say even if Donald Trump Withdraws, they are confident that other countries will step up to the plate. I'm 16 years old from Mwanza, Tanzania. Looking forward, there's a lot of things that Trump can do to slow progress on climate change, but many of the trends he doesn't have control over. So there is reason for optimism if you're looking in the long- term. 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