Trump moves promptly to scrap ‘Obamacare’, climate plan
21 Jan 2017
Shortly after US President Donald Trump was sworn into office on Friday, the newly updated White House website said the new administration will eliminate the Climate Action Plan, the centrepiece of former President Barack Obama's climate legacy that aims to cut carbon emissions from power plants.
"For too long, we've been held back by burdensome regulations on our energy industry," the website said in a page titled "An America First Energy Plan".
"President Trump is committed to eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies such as the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the US rule."
It claimed that lifting these restrictions will "greatly help American workers, increasing wages by more than $30 billion over the next seven years."
The rest of the web page did not mention climate change any more.
Trump also signed an executive order which targets the signature health care reforms of his predecessor. His proclamation ordered agencies to ease the economic burden of the laws known as Obamacare, the BBC reports.
Trump has called climate change a "hoax" and has threatened to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement that took effect last year.
Trump's energy plan said that the US has "vast untapped domestic energy reserves" valued at $50 trillion in total, and that the country "must take advantage of "the revenues from energy production to rebuild our roads, schools, bridges and public infrastructure".
The plan also vowed to revive America's coal industry.
In addition, the Trump administration pledged to work with the country's Gulf allies to develop "a positive energy relationship" as part of its anti-terrorism strategy, it said.
The new-look White House website carried a set of policy pledges that offered the broad contours of the Trump administration's top priorities.
The list includes fierce support for law enforcement bordering on vigilantism and the notable absence of any directives involving President Obama's Affordable Care Act, the health insurance plan known as 'Obamacare'.
"Our job is not to make life more comfortable for the rioter, the looter, or the violent disrupter," reads the law and order section, which calls for "more law enforcement" and "more effective policing".
"Our job is to make life more comfortable for parents who want their kids to be able to walk the streets safely. Or the senior citizen waiting for a bus. Or the young child walking home from school," it reads.
The issues page of Trump's White House website offers no new plans or policies but rather a rehash of many of his most prominent campaign promises - a signal to the nation that Trump, more pragmatic than ideological, plans to implement at least the key guideposts of his campaign vision.
His policies include plans to both withdraw from and renegotiate major trade deals, grow the nation's military and increase cyber-security capabilities, build a wall at the nation's southern border and deport undocumented immigrants who have committed violent crimes.
The new administration lists only six issues on the website - energy, foreign policy, jobs and growth, military, law enforcement and trade deals.
Critics point out that it makes no mention of civil rights, LGBT rights, healthcare or climate change.
