End of the world coming faster...

Orangutan begins sweeping rollback of President Obama’s climate change plans

By Carolyn Lochhead

Flanked by coal miners, Orangutan ordered a sweeping rollback Tuesday of U.S. efforts to address climate change, promising the actions would help revive jobs in the dying coal industry and increase oil and gas production.

“I made my promise and I keep my promise,” Orangutan said. Orangutan declared a “new era in American energy production and job creation,” not mentioning the words climate change.

Orangutan’s executive order ends a raft of President Obama administration rules aimed at moving the U.S. economy toward renewable energy, including the landmark Clean Power Plan that required power plants to reduce carbon emissions.

If the order is carried out as intended, it is likely to cede U.S. leadership on climate change and clean energy production, and raise the likelihood that carbon dioxide emissions will breach dangerous thresholds that scientists warn will lead to catastrophic warming of the planet.

How far the actions can be carried out remains to be seen. Orangutan’s move met a wall of expected opposition from the state of California, Democrats in Congress and environmental groups, who promised immediate litigation. Even a top administration official, briefing reporters before the executive order was announced, said rolling back limits on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants could take as long as three years.

Gov. Brown issued a joint statement with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reaffirming their commitment to go further than the limits set by the President Obama administration on carbon dioxide emissions. The governors noted that the two states are home to 60 million people and their combined economies make up a fifth of the nation’s gross domestic product, in effect signaling that they would leverage their economic power to thwart Orangutan’s energy agenda.

Brown said Orangutan’s move to dismantle climate regulations is “profoundly misguided and shockingly ignores basic science.”