Factbox-How Trump would try to dismantle Biden’s climate legacy By Reuters

(Reuters) – Presidential hopeful Donald Trump has crafted an energy policy platform centered on maximizing U.S. fuel and energy production, in part by dismantling the Biden administration’s central efforts to fight climate change.

The former Republican president’s campaign said President Joe Biden’s efforts to support the adoption of electric vehicles while limiting the use of coal and gas pose a risk to the nation’s power grid at a time of rising energy demand and promised changes that would facilitate authorization for us. power plants and removing obstacles to fossil fuel production.

In an ironic twist, the United States became the world’s largest producer of oil and gas during Biden’s tenure. Even so, Biden has pushed legislation through Congress and issued regulations aimed at accelerating the transition to cleaner energy.

Here are some of the Biden administration’s climate initiatives that Trump would try to target if he wins against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the November election:

POWER PLANT RULE

In April, Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency finalized rules targeting carbon, air and water pollution from power plants, an industry responsible for nearly 25 percent of U.S. carbon emissions. The rules will effectively require coal-fired power plants and new natural gas generators to capture emissions before they reach the atmosphere.

In a speech about his economic platform on September 5, Trump criticized the power plant rule, saying it set the stage “for a catastrophic energy shortage that will make inflation much worse.”

“I will immediately issue a National Emergency Declaration to achieve a massive increase in our domestic energy supply,” Trump said in the speech. “With these big authorities, we will overcome every bureaucratic hurdle to issue speedy approvals for new drilling, new pipelines, new refineries and new power plants and reactors.”

VEHICLE EFFICIENCY RULES

The Biden administration in March announced new US auto emissions regulations aimed at reducing tailpipe pollution and pushing automakers to expand production of electric and hybrid vehicles. The final rules were a simplified version of the original proposal, giving automakers more freedom to comply with the standards.

But they still drew the ire of the Trump campaign, which included them in a group of Biden’s environmental initiatives that it says distort markets, drive up prices and limit consumer choice.

Trump said in his Sept. 5 speech that he would “end the electric vehicle mandate.”

Despite Trump’s opposition to the widespread adoption of electric vehicles, his campaign has won the support of Tesla (NASDAQ: ) founder Elon Musk, whose company may be able to gain an advantage over rivals even as Trump cuts more much limits on vehicle pollution or cancel subsidies for electric vehicles. .

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT

Trump said he would “revoke all unspent funds” under the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s signature climate law.

The 2022 law includes hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies for electric vehicles, solar and wind power and other clean energy technologies, and has attracted massive investment in domestic manufacturing in those industries.

Any change to the law would require an act of Congress.

PARIS AGREEMENT

During his 2017-2021 term as US president, Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement, an international pact to combat climate change, arguing that it was unnecessary and put the country at a competitive disadvantage against China.

Trump’s campaign said he would do it again if he wins in November.

The US is now fully participating in the deal, after Biden quickly joined in 2021 and sought to restore US climate leadership on the global stage.

(Reporting by Richard Valdmanis and Timothy Gardner; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)