On Wednesday, EPA Administration Andrew Wheeler rolled out the Trump administrations new policy on coal with the acronym ‘ACE’, The Affordable Clean Energy Rule.

Almost immediately, environmental groups around the country and the world condemned the new plan. Environment Montana, based in Missoula said the plan send the country’s energy policy in exactly the wrong direction.

“Under President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, it was scheduled to ratchet down carbon pollution by about 32 percent by 2030,” said Skye Borden, Executive Director of Environment Montana. “The new plan put in place by the Trump administration has no target, leaving that responsibility to individual states. It assumes that gradual changes in the energy market will take care of problems.”

Borden said the EPA itself lists reasons why the new plan will be harmful to the environment.

“The EPA’s own estimates say the new rule will lead to more upper respiratory illness, and it will cause an estimated 1,400 premature deaths each year by the year 2030,” she said. “From our perspective this will be a significant health concern and runs an unnecessary risk and an unnecessary delay in the fight against climate change.”

Borden said the emphasis should return to renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar and allow coal to succumb to world market forces.

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