Number of the Month: 32%

Trump Will Repeal Obama Plan to Reduce Emissions by 32%. Trump Approval Rating Hits New Low of 32%.

On October 10, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced he will reverse the  Obama Clean Power Plan goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 32%. First announced by President Obama in October 2015, the goal was not even an ambitious one. That 32% reduction was to be calculated based on 2005 emissions, not 2015 emissions, with a target date of 2030. Still, it was too aggressive for President Trump, who made the gutting of the Clean Power Plan a central plank of his campaign’s environmental platform. In anticipation, on the eve of the announcement, the Natural Resources Defense Council tweeted it will sue.   . 

Meanwhile, President Trump’s approval rating has continued its nosedive, reaching an all-time low of 32%, according to an Associated Press poll. The poll had more bad news for the president, “Twenty-six percent believe President Trump is a strong leader, 23 percent view him as honest, and 16 percent say he is level-headed. Republicans are most likely to use each of these terms to describe the president.” And, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, the “president’s popularity is eroding in small towns and rural communities where 15 percent of the country’s population lives. The poll of more than 15,000 adults in “non-metro” areas shows that they are now as likely to disapprove of Trump as they are to approve of him.”