*WSJ: Federal prosecutors granted immunity to David Pecker, CEO of company that publishes National Enquirer, in Cohen investigation
*WSJ: Pecker met with prosecutors to describe involvement of Cohen, Trump in hush-money deals to women ahead of 2016 election
*WSJ: Pecker is a longtime friend of Cohen, Trump
*WSJ: Prosecutors indicate Dylan Howard, chief content officer of National Enquirer parent, also won’t be charged in criminal investigation of Cohen
*WSJ: Federal prosecutors granted immunity to David Pecker, CEO of company that publishes National Enquirer, in Cohen investigation
*WSJ: Pecker met with prosecutors to describe involvement of Cohen, Trump in hush-money deals to women ahead of 2016 election
*WSJ: Pecker is a longtime friend of Cohen, Trump
*WSJ: Prosecutors indicate Dylan Howard, chief content officer of National Enquirer parent, also won’t be charged in criminal investigation of Cohen
Casting a lifeline to the sinking coal industry and its shrinking work force, the Trump administration announced on Tuesday a plan to weaken regulations of coal-fired power plants that President Barack Obama had put in place as part of an effort to reduce America’s emissions of planet-warming gases. The plan is wrongheaded on every level.
It favors an old, dirty fuel and does nothing to accelerate the push toward the cleaner, renewable fuels on whose development the world is depending for real progress against global warming. It offers another false promise to the coal miners, whose industry is threatened not by some sinister “war on coal,” as President Trump would have it, but by market forces, including plentiful supplies of cleaner natural gas. And it is another sign — the latest of many — that the president has no remorse for abdicating the leadership America once claimed in the struggle against climate change.
For good measure, the proposal would also weaken provisions in the clean air laws designed to regulate pollutants like smog and soot and, in so doing, cause as many as 1,400 additional premature deaths annually by 2030, as well as many thousands of respiratory infections because of increases in fine particulate matter linked to heart and lung disease.