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Donald Trump to rip-up Barack Obama's pollution safeguards

Donald Trump: The President has been accused of undermining US leadership on pollution: REUTERS
Donald Trump: The President has been accused of undermining US leadership on pollution: REUTERS

Donald Trump is set to rip up key safeguards on greenhouse gases and water pollution imposed by the Obama administration.

The president is determined to promote fossil fuel production and economic growth even if that impacts on the environment.

New executive orders lifting limits on greenhouse gases from electricity plants and rolling back water pollution regulations could be signed into law as early as today.

The president has already pushed through repeal of an Obama-era regulation requiring coal-mining firms to clean up streams after their work.

Environmentalists warn that the reversals would mark a major change in the role the US plays internationally on climate change.

“Undermining the international leadership the US has shown on climate action would be an enormous mistake of historic consequence,” said John Coequyt, global climate policy director for the Sierra Club.

“It would mean he is declaring open season on our air, water and climate while further destabilising our role in the world,” he added.

During his campaign, Mr Trump pledged to rescind President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which aimed to cut carbon-dioxide emissions from electricity generation by 32 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

The other early target was the 2015 Waters Of The US rule that applies more stringent safeguards to 60 per cent of the bodies of water in America.

Shortly after Mr Trump’s inauguration last month, all mention of “climate change” disappeared from the official White House website.

Ivanka Trump last night tweeted her support for the Jewish community after 11 community centres were targeted with bomb hoaxes. She wrote: “America is a nation built on the principle of religious tolerance.”