EPA chief enlists coal lobby to oppose Paris climate accord

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has made it his mission to persuade President Trump to kill the Paris climate accord. And now he has enlisted Big Coal’s help. Pruitt met personally with the National Mining Association’s board of directors to urge them to pressure the president to walk away from the international climate agreement that seeks to keep global temperature rise within the 2-degree Celsius threshold. NMA complied and joined Pruitt’s cause against climate action. The coal-mining industry holds significant sway with the Trump administration, having successfully persuaded the president to attack public health safeguards and the carbon pollution reductions of the Clean Power Plan, reopen public land to coal extraction, and even study how to promote dirty coal over renewable energy sources. Trump is expected to decide on whether the United States will keep its climate commitments in the Paris accord by the G-7 summit happening in late May.