EPA’s 4-year strategic plan does not mention ‘climate change:’ report

A four-year plan for President Trump’s EPA contains no mention of the words “climate change.”

The 38-page document, released for public comment last week, does not include the phrases “climate change,” “carbon dioxide” or “greenhouse gas emissions,” according to CNN.

This is in stark contract to President Obama’s 80-page plan, which listed “Addressing Climate Change and Improving Air Quality” as one of its central goals, and referenced climate change more than 40 times.

“Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of our time and it doesn’t even appear in the strategic plan for this agency – that’s stunning,” Rachel Cleetus, lead economist and climate policy manger with the Union Of Concerned Scientists, told CNN. “This wasn’t an oversight; this is a deliberate strategy by this administration.”

The EPA’s three core goals in this strategic plan are to focus on clean air, land and water; shift more environmental regulation responsibility to states; and enforce laws “as Congress intended,” according to CNN.

{mosads}On Tuesday, EPA chief Scott Pruitt signed a proposal to repeal the Clean Power Plan, Obama’s landmark emissions regulations intended to fight climate change which were a key part of the nation’s dedication to the Paris Accord international agreement on climate change.

Trump pulled the U.S. out of the agreement at the start of his term, and has referred to climate change as a Chinese “hoax.”

Pruitt has also questioned humans’ role in climate change and called for public debate on the issue.