Wyoming Governor Vetoes Defunding “Green Programs”

Just a few weeks ago the Trump administration as well as the new head of the EPA, declassified CO2 as a "pollutant."

The question then became, will Wyoming end its law and state funding of carbon sequestration?

The state legislator tried to in the last session.

But Governor Gordon vetoed it.

Defunding carbon sequestration was tucked into the wildfire funding bill at the last moment.

The Governor used his line-item veto to cut it out.

(VIDEO): EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin Launches the Greatest Day of Deregulation in American History

The language would have defunded $152 million in Energy Matching Funds and Large Project Energy Matching Funds programs.

The money is for private as well as federal projects related to carbon capture.

Funds were earmarked for storage, carbon dioxide transportation, industrial carbon capture, coal refineries, hydrogen production, transportation, storage, hydrogen hub development, biomass, biochar, hydropower, lithium, processing and separation, battery storage or wind and solar energy.

“Carbon is an incredibly important building block, and so putting Wyoming out in the lead to be able to come to new technologies, new ways to be able to use it, (is) absolutely critical,” Gordon said on Wednesday.

 

“I’m really disappointed that somehow in the political squash of the session, we lost our way on really being that supportive of our energy industry.”

 

President Richard Nixon signed the Clean Air Act into law on December 31, 1970. The act was passed by Congress to improve air quality and public health.

Back in 2009 the EPA declared that CO2 was a "pollutant" and began regulating it.

But some argue that CO2 cannot be a pollutant when it is necessary for life on this planet.

One of the next moves by President Donald Trump, the new head of the EPA is to scrap the conclusion that CO2 is a "pollutant" or even a major greenhouse gas.

(Bloomberg) — "President Donald Trump’s top environmental regulator is recommending the US government scrap its formal conclusion that greenhouse gases endanger the public, a move that would sweep away the legal foundation for regulations limiting planet-warming pollution from power plants, automobiles and oil wells."

 

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin has urged a rewrite of the so-called endangerment finding.

“This is the holy grail of the climate agenda,” said Marc Morano, who runs the climate-skeptic website ClimateDepot.com.

 

“If you want to permanently cripple the United States climate agenda you have to go at the heart of it. This is the heart of it: the endangerment finding.”Zeldin delivered his recommendations to Trump a month after the president tasked the EPA with determining the “legality and continuing applicability” of the endangerment finding as part of a Jan. 20 executive order.

It's not just CO2, but methane as well.

At issue is the EPA’s 2009 conclusion that carbon dioxide, methane and four other gases threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.

States like Wyoming have been involved in an ongoing effort to capture CO2 and store it, away from the atmosphere.

It has cost the state, the power companies, and utilities a lot of money.

The order by Trump might just put an end to those costly projects.

But there are those who are shocked by this and ready to fight.

“There is a lot of shocking stuff happening now, but to completely deny climate change and any federal obligation to control the pollution that’s driving it would be shocking and irresponsible,” said David Doniger, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Environmental advocates believe it also would be illegal.

There is sure to be a court battle.