Exclusive–Trump’s EPA Transition Chair Myron Ebell: ‘Scrapping’ Clean Power Plan ‘Key Part of Deregulatory Agenda’

Myron Ebell, the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s (CEI) director of Energy and Environment programs and the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) transition chair, released an exclusive statement to Breitbart News.

Ebell argued that eliminating the Obama-era EPA’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) serves as a crucial part of “Trump’s deregulatory agenda.”

Breitbart News revealed on Friday that the EPA will repeal the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, a signature climate change regulation spawned during the Obama administration.

Ebell lobbied for drastic cuts at the EPA while serving as EPA transition chair. He argued that the EPA should cut at least half of its workforce. Ebell said, “Let’s aim for half and see how it works out, and then maybe we’ll want to go further.”

Ebell’s proposed cuts would mean that roughly 5,000 employees would remain, which would serve as the lowest amount of staffers the EPA would have since the Nixon administration.

Ebell told Breitbart News that the Clean Power Plan would have been disastrous for the American economy and would have forced energy prices to skyrocket. Ebell said, “If it had gone into effect, the ‘Clean Power’ Plan rule to limit greenhouse gas emissions from coal and natural gas power plants would have been one of the most expensive regulations ever imposed, causing electric rates for consumers to go up and threatening the reliability of the electric grid.”

The EPA contended in the document obtained by Breitbart News that the EPA exceeded its statutory authority under the Clean Air Act to force states and power plants to comply with the CPP’s regulatory scheme to lower carbon emissions.

Over 150 interested parties, including 27 states, 24 trade associations, 37 rural electric co-ops, and three labor unions sued the EPA, arguing that the CPP was unconstitutional. Ebell that because the Clean Power Plan is illegal, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt would simply follow the law by repealing the Clean Power Plan.

“The Supreme Court blocked implementation of the rule in February 2016. There is little doubt that the court would have eventually decided that the rule is illegal,” Ebell said. “Thus the EPA under Administrator Scott Pruitt is not only doing the right thing for the economy, but is also simply following the laws that govern regulatory activity.”

Former White House chief strategist and Breitbart News executive chairman Steve Bannon detailed President Donald Trump’s agenda in three parts: economic nationalism, national sovereignty, and deconstruction of the administrative state. Bannon argued that if the radical left cannot pass their agenda through legislation, they will push their liberal schemes through administrative fiat. At CPAC, Bannon explained, “The way the progressive left runs is that if they can’t get it passed, they’re just going to put it in some sort of regulation in an agency,” he said. “That’s all going to be deconstructed.”

As president, Trump has remarkable leeway to disassemble the administrative state. Breitbart News has detailed the many times that the president has worked to unravel it.

Myron Ebell claimed, “Scrapping the ‘Clean Power’ Plan is a key part of President Trump’s deregulatory agenda, which is designed to get the economy moving again. This rule and other greenhouse gas emissions rules are depressing investment and job growth in resource and manufacturing industries.”