On November 28 and 29, 2017, the United States Environmental Protection Agency held a public hearing in Charleston on the repeal of the Clean Power Plan.  To read all about it, see the December, 2017, issue of The Highlands Voice.  At the time, this was to be the only public hearing on the proposal to repeal the Plan.  EPA was to come to the heart of coal country, sponsor a pep rally in support of what it wanted to do anyway, and then announce that the people had spoken in opposition to the Clean Power Plan.

            Now EPA has reversed course, on the listening part if not on its intention to repeal the Clean Power Plan.  It held a “listening session” in Kansas City on February 21.  The Kansas City Star commented, “KC listening session came up with no good reason for the EPA to repeal the Clean Power Plan.”

It had another in San Francisco on February 28.

The final session will be on March 27 in Gillette, Wyoming.

The Clean Power Plan is designed to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide. Under the Plan, each state is required to develop a plan on how it intends to achieve the emission reductions.

It has also reopened the public comment period until April 26, 2018.

The Clean Power Plan was an Obama era initiative, part of his plan to fight climate change by limiting carbon dioxide emissions. President Trump, on the other hand, is skeptical about climate change. Earlier this year he signed an Executive Order directing the Environmental Protection Agency to eliminate the Plan.