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High Accolades Across the Country on Trump’s Energy Independence Executive Order

04/04/2017
Contact Information: 
U.S. EPA Media Relations (press@epa.gov)

In Kansas, Senator Pat Roberts said Trump’s executive order was good news for energy consumers. As the Kansas City Star reports: “Sen. Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican, also applauded Trump's decision ‘to roll back burdensome Obama-era regulations,’ calling the announcement ‘good news for energy consumers and the economy.’”

In Kentucky, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell penned an op-ed in Fox News praising President Trump's energy executive order that will restore sanity after Obama's failed climate policies. “I commend President Trump for sending this flawed regulatory plan, along with a number of others, back to the drawing board with Tuesday’s Energy Independence Executive Order.”

In Missouri, the Kansas City Star reports that Senator Roy Blunt blamed job-killing regulations for higher energy prices. “Blunt, who blamed environmental regulations for increases in utility bills, said that the order ‘is an important step toward protecting low and middle-income Americans who can least afford higher costs on everything from gas to groceries.’”

In Montana, the Great Falls Tribune [http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/local/2017/03/29/interior-secretary-zinke-says-war-coal/99786282/] reports that the Montana Public Service Commission praised President Trump’s executive order that rolls back job-killing regulations. “The five Republican members of the Montana Public Service Commission issued a joint statement praising Trump’s executive order to roll back what they described as burdensome environmental regulations that restrict domestic energy production and raise rates for utility customers.”

In New York, the editorial board at the New York Post writes that Trump’s executive order will help restore our constitutional system. “Trump’s move not only helps the economy and delivers on a promise, it also takes a step toward restoring America’s constitutional system, in which Congress passes laws — not a dictatorial president.”

In North Dakota, the Bismarck Tribune reports that North Dakotans praised the measure. North Dakota's coal industry applauded an executive order starting a roll back of climate regulation signed by President Donald Trump on Tuesday. Lignite Energy Council President Jason Bohrer said the order's energy independence focus "will help preserve, protect and enhance the lignite coal industry, as well as strengthen research and development efforts to develop an abundant supply of electricity for American businesses and families."

In Ohio, the Ohio Coal Association penned an op-ed in the Troy Daily News stating Trump’s plan will save coal communities in Ohio. “Ohio’s coal communities saw the CPP for exactly what it was: a thinly-veiled assault on their livelihood — and one that would cripple an already reeling industry while providing little environmental benefit. Fortunately, the Trump administration has done just what it promised. By executive order, President Trump has axed the CPP along with another vestige of the Obama administration’s anti-coal policy, the moratorium on all new leases of federal coal reserves.”

In Texas, the Texas Tribune reports that AG Ken Paxton said Trump’s decision could result in lower energy prices. “’President Trump’s executive order is a significant step toward sparing all of us from a potentially disastrous change to the nation’s energy policy that was orchestrated during the Obama era in violation of federal law,’ [Attorney General Ken] Paxton said in a statement Tuesday. ‘The so-called Clean Power Plan would have subjected Americans to higher electricity costs and could have weakened the nation’s power grid.’”

In Utah, the Deseret News reports that Governor Herbert praised Trump’s decision that will help his state. “Utah Gov. Gary Herbert called the executive order a step in the right direction. ‘Utah and many public land and energy producing states think that the Clean Power Plan was a significant overreach. It was really designed to kill off carbon-based fuels and particularly coal,’ he said. ‘The standards that they were trying to put in place, there is not even technology that allows you to meet those standards.’”

In Wisconsin, Brett Healy penned an op-ed in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel where he shared how damaging the Clean Power Plan would’ve been for families across the Badger State. “President Donald Trump’s executive order instructing the Environmental Protection Agency to begin the process to repeal the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan, a slate of anti-coal regulations, is a welcome respite for Wisconsin and the nation. … Closer to home, a MacIver Institute and Beacon Hill study found that the plan would have increased the average electricity price in Wisconsin by 19%, forced the average household electric bill to jump $225 a year and cost our industrial manufacturers an astonishing $105,094 more per year if implemented.”

In West Virginia, the Wheeling-News Register reports that leaders across the state rejoiced over the reversal of the Clean Power Plan. “If left in place, these regulations would have little positive impact on our climate while continuing to decimate West Virginia’s economy,” U.S. Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., said. “The president’s action will provide relief to coal communities that have been under a bureaucratic assault from Washington over the last eight years. The nightmare of the war on coal is now officially over.”

In Wyoming, the Associated Press reports that President Trump’s executive order on Tuesday has electrified workers. “So when President Donald Trump lifted a federal coal leasing moratorium and ordered a review of greenhouse gas regulations, the announcement electrified many workers here who depend on fossil fuels for their livelihood. After years of layoffs and corporate bankruptcies, they are optimistic that jobs and a better economy will soon return.”

Finally, the Casper Star-Tribune reports that President Trump’s pro-energy initiatives are helping the state. “Three months into Trump's term, he continues to please coal country. On Tuesday, the president asked the EPA to review and perhaps replace the controversial Clean Power Plan, which many locally thought could deal a death blow to the industry. He also overturned a controversial moratorium on coal leases.”

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