| President Donald Trump has issued Executive Orders demanding the EPA and other government agencies move backwards on Climate Change, an issue he has called a hoax.
Trump announced the "War on Coal" has ended.
Agencies are being ordered to ignore the impacts of carbon pollution, begin leasing coal mining rights on federal land, and - perhaps worst of all - the EPA is being ordered to dismantle its landmark climate protections, the Clean Power Plan.
The West Virginia Legislature is also rolling back the state's Clean Water Rules, to return coal mining jobs.
The energy plan, which would have regulated carbon dioxide emissions from existing fossil fuel-powered electricity plants, has been tied up in courts for more than a year, after more two dozen states, industry representatives and others sued the E.P.A.
They claimed that the plan was unconstitutional, and it hadn't yet taken effect because the Supreme Court had said the plan could not be carried out while it was being argued before a lower federal court.
Mr. Trump criticized the Clean Power Plan during the campaign and promised to bring back coal mining jobs and create new jobs in the fossil fuel industry.
EPA Director Pruitt, as Oklahoma's attorney general, sued the E.P.A. 14 times over environmental regulations, including the Clean Power Plan.
Washington Republicans have ignored the findings of about 1,000 climate scientists that contend Climate Change and dramatic world-wide weather patterns is linked to fossil fuel emissions, rather claiming it is a cyclical weather pattern or act of nature.
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