When it comes to their views and policies concerning so-called climate change, President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama stand far apart.
Trump is a climate realist who understands that conventional power sources like coal and natural gas are pivotal to America’s grid stability and will play a big role in the forthcoming AI arms race.
Obama, on the other hand, is a staunch climate alarmist who derides conventional power sources and favors “green” energy.
During his two terms, Obama enacted several policies that subsidized uncompetitive, unneeded, and unwanted green energy while placing onerous regulations on fossil fuels. During his first term, Trump tried to reverse much of the Obama administration’s anti-fossil fuel actions.
However, there was only so much that could be done given the constant distractions Trump faced throughout his first term.
One of the most consequential environmental regulations that Trump was unable to eliminate was Obama’s “Endangerment Finding.”
Most Americans have probably never heard of the Endangerment Finding. But this obscure rule has effectively allowed the federal government to label carbon dioxide a harmful “pollutant” that can be regulated under the Clean Air Act.
Unfortunately, a U.S. Supreme Court decision allowed the Obama administration to enact the rule in the first place.
In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA that “greenhouse gases are air pollutants covered by the Clean Air Act and that EPA must determine whether or not emissions of greenhouse gases from new motor vehicles cause or contribute to air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.”