Challenges loom after Obama policies scrap

Washington, Wednesday

Opponents of President Donald Trump’s decision to scrap his predecessor’s climate change policies say they will organise a public campaign and pursue legal avenues to challenge it.

California and New York issued a joint statement saying they would continue the fight against climate change. Environmental groups have hired a host of lawyers to challenge Trump’s move that boosts fossil fuel production. Trump said he wanted to end “job-killing regulations”.

His supporters believe that ending the climate change rules brought in by Barack Obama will create thousands of jobs in the gas, coal and oil industries.

The governors of New York and California summed up opponents’ views by saying Trump’s stance was “profoundly misguided and shockingly ignores basic science”.

In a joint statement, Governors Jerry Brown of California and Andrew Cuomo of New York, both Democrats, said: “With or without Washington, we will work with our partners throughout the world to aggressively fight climate change and protect our future.”

The two states have set even stricter targets on reducing greenhouse gas emissions than required by Obama’s rules and have far-reaching plans for converting to renewable energy sources for producing electricity.

“Erasing climate change may take place in Donald Trump’s mind, but nowhere else,” said Brown. A host of legal issues could be in the pipeline.

California has a special waiver allowing it to enforce tougher measures on vehicle emissions. Trump could rescind that - but this would lead to a fierce challenge. -BBC

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