EPA plans end of Obama clean power rule

WASHINGTON—Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt announced Monday he plans to eliminate the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era edict to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The Clean Power Plan required states to meet certain benchmarks for carbon emission reductions. The plan also included an incentive for states that proactively worked on renewable energy initiatives. President Barack Obama unveiled the rule in 2015 and predicted it would prevent thousands of premature deaths and reduce asthma attacks in children. But Pruitt said the rule was too far-reaching and unfair to businesses. “Regulatory power should not be used by any regulatory body to pick winners and losers,” he said. “The past administration was unapologetic. They were using every bit of power, every bit of authority to use the EPA to pick winners and losers in how we generate electricity in this country. And that’s wrong.”