Opponents of the decision by President Donald Trump to rollback policies of climate change put in place by former President Barack Obama say they are going to organize a campaign to pursue legal means to challenge it.
New York and California issued one joint statement that said they were continuing to fight climate change. Environmental groups hired a number of lawyers to fight Trump’s move that increases the production of fossil fuel.
Trump supporters say ending the rules for climate change that Obama brought in would create thousands of new jobs in coal, gas and oil.
In the same statement, California Governor Jerry Brown and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo both Democrats, wrote that with Washington or without Washington we are working with partners across the globe to fight in an aggressive manner climate change as well as protect our future.
The pair of states have set targets that are more strict for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions required by the rules set by Obama and have plans that are far reaching to convert to sources of energy that are renewable for the production of electricity.
Governor Brown wrote that eliminating climate change might take place in the mind of Trump, but not anywhere else.
A number of legal issues are likely on their way. California holds a waiver allowing it to have tougher measures for emissions from vehicles. Trump could rescind that waiver, but a fierce challenge would likely occur.
Trump could ask Congress as well to revoke the current Clean Air Act. In 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court made a ruling that carbon dioxide gas was considered a pollutant under the CAA.
Some experts think the ultimate goal of Trump’s order is to overturn that particular ruling.
Already in courts is the Clean Power Plan put into force by Obama, which seeks to slash fossil fuels for production of electricity.
Many activist groups are preparing to make legal challenges to the rollback put in place by Trump.
The Energy Independence order by Trump suspends over a half dozen measures that Obama enacted. Although during his campaign he vowed to pull the US from the climate deal made in Paris, he has not spoken of his current intentions related to that.
