*By Madison Alworth*
With its latest emissions policy, the Trump administration has effectively overhauled President Obama's environmental legacy, said Earther reporter Brian Kahn.
"You couple this also with the international view of dropping out of the Paris Agreement ー or at least announcing our intent to do thatーas well as what we're seeing with the Department of Interior and its attempt to lease more oil and gas drilling sites on federal land," Kahn said Tuesday in an interview on Cheddar. "Taken as a whole, these policies really signal a rapid and major change."
The administration [introduced](https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-proposes-affordable-clean-energy-ace-rule) a new rule, "Affordable Clean Energy," on Tuesday, which will roll back many of the restrictions on coal emissions that President Obama put in place.
The new plan allows individual states to regulate their coal plants' pollution rather than adhering to a federal standard.
"The Clean Power Plan was going to reduce them by about 35 percent them by 2030, and this will lead to a 1 percent decrease over that time period," Kahn said.
The new plan is largely perceived as a means to prop up the coal industry. But in a statement released Tuesday, the EPA said the rule “empowers states, promotes energy independence, and facilitates economic growth and job creation.”
"We are putting our great coal miners back to work," President Trump said during a rally in West Virginia on Tuesday night.
If the plan is enacted, Kahn said the results may be disastrous.
"So, we are going to see more carbon emissions. More importantly than that, we'll also see a lot of pollution," he said. "That will have very adverse impacts on the American public."
The administration's plan will move to an open, public comment period before it will need final approval from the president.
For full interview [click here] (https://cheddar.com/videos/trump-administration-announces-new-emission-policy).
With a rising number of COVID-19 cases due to the omicron variant, the FDA is making big moves. First, Pfizer's COVID-19 booster has been authorized for those ages 12 to 15. The agency also reduced the amount of time to wait between receiving a second vaccine dose and booster from six months to five. Finally, a third primary series dose of Pfizer's shot is approved for immunocompromised children five to 11 years old. Professor Peter Pitts joins Cheddar News to discuss.
California's new composting law will affect what residents do in their kitchens. As of this week, Californians will have to recycle excess food in an effort to reduce emissions caused by food waste. Cities and counties will turn recycled food into compost or use it as a renewable energy source. California's new law is the largest mandatory residential food waste recycling program in the country. Rachel Wagoner, Director of the California Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery called the law 'the biggest change to trash' since recycling started in the 1980s. She joined Cheddar Climate to discuss.
Deborah Brosnan, President of Deborah Brosnan & Associates, joins Cheddar Climate, where she explains why global warming brought about 'a year of reckoning' in 2021 and why previously unprecedented weather events could become the norm going forward.
On this episode of Cheddar Reveals, Dr. Anita Gupta, Adjunct assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, shares her forecast for the healthcare industry in 2022; Waseem Asghar, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Computer & Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Florida Atlantic University, breaks down the latest progress, trends, and innovations in wearable health tech; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Hacking our Biome.'
Dr. Anita Gupta, Adjunct assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, joins Cheddar Reveals to share her forecast for the healthcare industry in 2022.
Waseem Asghar, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Computer & Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Florida Atlantic University, joins Cheddar Reveals to break down the latest progress, trends, and innovations in wearable health tech.
Washington DC and the surrounding areas saw a record breaking snow storm Monday as a strong storm system works its way across the eastern U.S. The extreme weather event caused extensive damage in the greater Washington area, leaving thousands in the region without power. Jonathan Porter, Chief Meteorologist, AccuWeather, joined Wake Up with Cheddar to discuss the fierce storm.
Sweta Chakraborty, U.S. President of We Don't Have Time and climate change expert, joins Cheddar News to discuss how mining the proper resources for the clean energy sector is crucial.
Over the past year alone, we've seen an increasing push-back on fossil fuels, legislation to reduce plastic pollution, greater protection over our worlds' forests, and a growing number of companies working to reduce total carbon footprint. To discuss the sustainability trends that defined 2021 and the changes individuals can make in 2022, J.D. Durkin is joined by Ashlee Piper, a sustainability expert and author of 'Give a Sh*t: Do Good. Live Better. Save the Planet,' joins Cheddar News.
