Hundreds of Mayors Tell EPA They Oppose Repeal of Clean Power Plan

More than 230 mayors from 47 cities are telling Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt they are opposed to the Trump administration's move to roll back the Clean Power Plan, The Hill reports.

Their comments came in a letter to Pruitt signed by 236 mayors, who claimed the move would impact health and economics in their communities. A possible repeal of the CPP has been under consideration by the EPA for months. The Hill called the CPP the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's environmental agenda.

"We strongly oppose the proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan, which would put our citizens at risk and harm our efforts to address the urgent threat of climate change," the letter to Pruitt reads.

"The legal authority of cities and other municipalities generally extends only as far as their state governments and federal law allow, and as a result, our local efforts to address climate change are highly sensitive to national policies like the Clean Power Plan, which shape markets, steer state action, and have large direct impacts on nationwide emissions."

The CPP aims to reduce carbon dioxide emission from electrical power generation by 32 percent by 2030, according to the Hill.

"We are committed to righting the wrongs of the Obama administration by cleaning the regulatory slate," Pruitt said last year. "Any replacement rule will be done carefully, properly, and with humility, by listening to all those affected by the rule."

Pruitt has been an outspoken opponent of the CPP, calling it an "unlawful attempt to expand federal bureaucrats' authority over states' energy economies."

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