WASHINGTON, June 19 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday finalized a rule to overturn the Obama-era attempt to restrict emissions from coal plants by relying more on cleaner fuels.
EPA chief Andrew Wheeler signed the replacement rule called Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) that allows U.S. states to make their own decisions on ways and timetables to cut emissions, demanding much smaller carbon reductions.
The move is part of U.S. president Donald Trump's pledge to revitalize the country's coal industry, which could, according to EPA, "reduce emissions while allowing the economy to continue to grow without overburdensome regulation."
"When ACE is fully implemented, we expect to see U.S. power sector CO2 emissions fall by as much as 35 percent below 2005 levels," said Wheeler.
However, the U.S. electricity sector should cut its emissions by 74 percent over 2005 levels by 2030 to keep global temperatures from rising more than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, according to the International Energy Agency.
The new rule drew immediate criticisms from environmentalists and some U.S. lawmakers and they branded the rule as "Dirty Power Plan."
It is "a stunning giveaway to big polluters, giving dirty special interests the greenlight to choke our skies, poison our waters and worsen the climate crisis," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a statement.
"It would give polluters free rein and doom future generations to a dangerously hostile world," said Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, at the council's official twitter account.
"It's a rule to increase emissions because it's a rule to extend the life of coal plants," Conrad Schneider, advocacy director of the Clean Air Task Force, told reporters.
"The Trump administration has made painfully clear that they are incapable of rising to the challenge and tackling this crisis," Gina McCarthy, former EPA administrator, said in a statement.
EPA's own analysis last year showed that the new rule could cause 1,400 premature deaths per year by 2030 owing to an increase in the extremely fine particulate matter that is linked to heart and lung disease.
The Trump administration has already taken a series of actions reversing his predecessor Barack Obama's climate policies, including withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change.
