U.S. President Donald Trump holds up an executive order on “Energy Independence”, eliminating Obama era climate change regulations, during a signing ceremony at the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington on Tuesday. Mr. Trump signed the order with EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Vice President Mike Pence by his side. But Mr. Trump and several members of his administration have doubts about climate change, and Mr. Trump promised during his campaign to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord, arguing it would hurt U.S. business. Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change who helped broker the Paris accord, lamented Mr. Trump’s order. The Clean Power Plan required states to collectively cut carbon emissions from power plants by 32% below 2005 levels by 2030.

Source: The Hindu March 28, 2017 19:30 UTC