--- title: Clean Power Plan Will Be Repealed Without a Replacement description: The choice to eliminate the rule without a plan to replace it surprised many in the energy industry who supported nixing the rule canonical: https://time.com/4976455/clean-power-plan-repeal-scott-pruitt-trump/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-10T19:30:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:56:15.088Z article:section: Politics og:title: Energy Companies Don't Like the Clean Power Plan — or Trump's Plan to Kill It og:description: They fear a more restrictive plan could be written in the future og:url: https://time.com/4976455/clean-power-plan-repeal-scott-pruitt-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8deb56ab97fe122/6988e0f122fb8580abe232c1/gettyimages-826173358.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: US President Donald Trump holds up a "Trump Digs Coal" sign as he arrives to speak during a Make America Great Again Rally at Big Sandy Superstore Arena in Huntington, West Virginia, August 3, 2017. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Energy Companies Don't Like the Clean Power Plan — or Trump's Plan to Kill It twitter:description: They fear a more restrictive plan could be written in the future twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8deb56ab97fe122/6988e0f122fb8580abe232c1/gettyimages-826173358.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Energy Companies Don't Like the Clean Power Plan — or President Trump's Plan to Kill It > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=602a9bfe-0d83-4663-a04c-4542360bc40d&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Legal Reasons Why President Trump Won't Take A Stand On Climate Change [Watch (HLS stream): The Legal Reasons Why President Trump Won't Take A Stand On Climate Change](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mia6Tcb8.m3u8) (2:11)  _Published 2017-09-26. The Legal Reasons Why President Trump Won't Take A Stand On Climate Change_  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Oct 10, 2017 7:30 PM UTC  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Oct 10, 2017 7:30 PM UTC Donald Trump boasted last month that the Obama Administration’s plan to regulate power plants will soon be [“boom, gone.”](http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/22/politics/trump-alabama-trip-senate-race/index.html) Energy companies long assumed that when the dust settled, Trump would then put forward a plan more to their liking. Instead, the Administration has no plans, and that’s making them nervous. The Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that it would [repeal the Clean Power Plan](http://time.com/4974583/scott-pruitt-epa-clean-power-rollback/), which seeks to lower the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by power plants. But the agency currently has no plan to replace it either, surprising many energy company executives. “Most industry groups believe that the \[Clean Power Plan\] should be repealed,” said Jeff Holmstead, a former senior EPA official under George W. Bush who now represents energy companies, in an emailed statement. But “virtually all of them believe that EPA has a responsibility to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.” For energy companies, the problem is that the federal government is [already obligated](http://time.com/4959233/donald-trump-climate-change-hoax-question/) to reduce the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. Thanks to a 2007 Supreme Court decision and a [2009 finding by the EPA](http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1892368,00.html), greenhouse gases are considered pollutants that can harm human health, which means the agency is required to take action under the Clean Air Act. If the Trump Administration puts forward no plan to reduce emissions, it could be open to a lawsuit from environmentalists, or a future administration could write a new one. That could end up with a far more restrictive plan than the Trump Administration would write. The Clean Power Plan — a [central piece of the Obama Administration’s climate change efforts](http://time.com/3981535/white-house-clean-power-plan/) issued in 2015 — would have required states to create plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector. The plan aimed to reduce emissions from electrical generation by 32% by 2030 from 2005 levels, but each state would have had its own requirement based on capabilities. The measure never took effect following a Supreme Court stay. Following Trump’s executive order earlier this year, many energy companies, utilities and power companies expected that the EPA would issue a less stringent rule after replacing the Clean Power Plan. Such a move could give industry considerable latitude while also satisfying the Supreme Court’s requirement that agency regulate greenhouse gas emissions. But now, without a replacement, the EPA will undoubtedly face litigation that will leave industry uncertain. “The Trump Administration can get rid of these regulations,” Myron Ebell, who led Trump’s EPA transition team, told TIME last month. “But if the endangerment finding is out there, the next administration can implement similar regulations without a whole lot of delay.” Ebell, other far-right conservatives and representatives of the coal industry have called for the EPA to work to eliminate the endangerment finding, but most environmental policy experts agree that such an effort would not stand up to court scrutiny given the overwhelming evidence in support of man-made climate change. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has said that he does not intend to challenge the document. The EPA’s decision this week did leave the door open to an eventual replacement through a process known as Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. That process will allow the EPA to solicit comments from the public and relevant stakeholders, but offers no guarantee that the regulation will be replaced. “Any replacement rule will be done carefully, properly, and with humility, by listening to all those affected by the rule,” Pruitt said in a press release. Without a replacement on the books, environmental advocates have promised to sue, and the lack of replacement will aid their cause. “A proposal to repeal the Clean Power Plan without any timeline or even a commitment to propose a rule to reduce carbon pollution, isn’t a step forward,” former EPA administrator Gina McCarthy said in a statement. “They’re using stall tactics to defer action.” Now, what matters is what happens if and when the courts say the Administration can defer no more. ## Transcript As a candidate Donald Trump had no problem giving his opinion about climate change. So Obama's talking about all of this with the global warming, and a lot of it's a hoax, it's a hoax, I mean it's a money making industry okay . >> But as president he won't say what he things and neither will his administration. The president himself during the campaign called climate change a hoax. Have you had that conversation with him? I have not had that conversation with him. He no longer believes what he tweeted during the course of the campaign in years earlier, that it's a hoax? Look, you're gonna have to ask him. I'll ask it one more time. Does he believe global warming's a hoax? Does he believe- You should ask him that. When asked their own opinions, other members of the Trump administration generally agree the climate is changing and humans may play a role. Climate is changing, it always has. Man at this particular point in time is having an effect on it, how much effect is what's at debate here. So why is Trump himself so cagey? Part of it is political, polls show the majority of Americans believe global warming is real and is caused by human activities. Part of it personal, Trump does not like to admit he was wrong about an issue in the past As can be seen from his brief and begrudging admission this his crusade over President Obama's birth certificate was mistaken. President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period. But there's a legal reason too. The Environmental Protection Agency has found that the greenhouse gases, which cause climate change Are a form of pollution that endanger human health and wellbeing. And thanks to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling, that means the EPA must act on those findings. If the Trump Administration were to say climate change isn't real it would be open to lawsuits from environmentalists for not acting on its own EPA findings. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is careful to say that it's real in some form. I indicated That in fact global warming is occurring. That human activity contributes to it in some manner. That doesn't mean the EPA has to keep the Obama administration's plans in place. In fact members of the Trump adminstration have been steadily rolling back regulations designed to fight climate change. They just can't say they're doing that. Because climate change isn't real. 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