The Trump administration took aim at two Obama-era environmental policies on Thursday to boost the oil and coal industries, proposing to open up a wildlife habitat to drilling and mining and to remove hurdles to the construction of coal-fired power plants.
The moves, part of a broader agenda by U.S. President Donald Trump to revive the ailing coal industry and ramp up domestic energy production, come amid increasingly urgent warnings from within his own government about climate change and as world leaders gather at a United Nations conference to combat planetary warming.
Announced separately by Trump appointees who were both former energy lobbyists, the proposals cheered the coal and oil industries but triggered an uproar from environmental groups, which raised the prospect of legal challenges.