President Donald Trump’s decision to rollback some of the previous administration’s rules on coal is drawing cheers and jeers from industry advocates and the environmental community.

According to the Hill, the order signed by the President today mandates the following…

    • Orders the Environmental Protection Agency to formally consider repealing its Clean Power Plan.
    • Federal regulators are asked to consider repealing the EPA’s carbon limits for newly built power plants and methane emissions standards for oil and natural gas drilling from the EPA and the Interior Department.
    • The order stops Interior’s moratorium on new coal mining leases on federal land.
    • It also ends policies asking federal agencies to consider climate change in environmental reviews.

Bruce Stevens of the Indiana Coal Council says the rules hurt the coal industry and the order will create jobs and make America more energy independent. Meanwhile, Jesse Kharbanda of the Hoosier Environmental Council says the mandate won’t create jobs and will only hurt the environment and stifle efforts to halt climate change.

You can hear both sides in the Leon Tailored Audio above. Each segment runs between eight and nine minutes.

Photo: WorldCoal.Org