US President Donald Trump has announced that he is repealing a Barack Obama-era law that served as the legal basis for the country's fight against greenhouse gas emissions, AFP reported.
The decision, announced solemnly by the White House, immediately ends vehicle emissions standards and paves the way for the repeal of other environmental regulations, including those related to power plant emissions.
This will "save American consumers thousands of billions of dollars" by reducing the cost of cars, the US president, who is openly skeptical of climate change, said.
By eliminating the legal basis on which the Environmental Protection Agency relied to regulates greenhouse gas emissions, the Republican is dealing a serious blow to the country's climate policy. The United States is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases that are warming the planet.
Regarding Trump's decision, former US President Barack Obama said: "Without this foundational text, we will be less protected, less healthy and less able to fight climate change, all so that the fossil fuel industry can profit even more".
This reversal "is a betrayal of the American people and establishes the Republican Party as the party of polluters", said California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, a fierce opponent of Donald Trump, and vowed to challenge the decision in court.
Adopted in 2009 during the presidency of Democrat Barack Obama, the text repealed by Trump stated that six greenhouse gases are dangerous to public health and therefore fall within the scope of pollutants regulated by the federal agency. The ruling has paved the way for a raft of federal regulations aimed at curbing emissions of these gases, starting with emissions from trucks and cars.
The $10 billion defamation case brought against the BBC by US President Donald Trump will go to trial in February next year, a Florida judge has ruled, PA Media and DPA reported.
The case will be heard in a two-week trial in a Miami court, which will begin on February 15 next year. The court documents name President Donald Trump as the plaintiff and the BBC and others as the defendants.
The BBC has taken legal steps to have the lawsuit, filed in connection with an edit in the program "Panorama" on the BBC.
The show was criticised late last year for an episode aired in November that appeared to suggest the US president had encouraged his supporters to storm the Capitol in 2021. The episode included a clip of Trump's speech on 6 January 2021, in which he said: "We are going to the Capitol [..]. and I will be there with you. And we will fight. We will fight to the end".
Trump is seeking up to $10 billion in damages over redacted excerpts of his speech, which his lawyers say are "manipulative and defamatory".
The BBC has filed a motion to dismiss the suit, arguing that the Florida court lacks "jurisdiction" against the corporation that the venue of the trial was "inappropriate" and that Trump "failed to state his claim", but the court dismissed it. The corporation argues that it did not create, produce or broadcast the documentary in Florida and that Trump's claim that the film was available in the U.S. through the streaming service "BritBox" is false.
The court order scheduling the trial was issued yesterday by Judge Roy K. Altman.