In a blowtorched American summer that now seems to be the new normal, we have experienced record-shattering heatwaves from L.A. to New Hampshire, devastating wildfires that can be seen from the space station, Arctic ice melts that cause rising sea levels and coastal flooding even on dry days, and storms that inundate entire cities and pulverize islands.

With that as his guide, President Trump is taking another shot at converting the planet into a cosmic hothouse, which is even more nonsensical than it sounds.

The Environmental Protection Agency, which under Trump doesn't protect much of anything other than fossil fuel interests, announced it will relax the rules on emissions from coal-fired power plants, an inexhaustible source of the greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere and cause the climate change we see in real time.

This is remarkable for multiple reasons: These rules, known as the 2015 Clean Power Plan - which was designed to reduce coal plants emissions by 32 percent by 2030 - were already held up by the Supreme Court, but the energy industry was acting as if they were in effect because it was the pragmatic and profitable thing to do.

And Trump's stated reason for the rollback is to give a coal another life by eliminating regulations, even though domestic power companies are phasing out coal plants as fast as they can. They know that the so-called war on coal was a devastating rout, as market forces, health concerns, and technology effectively consigned it to an irreversible fate.

So the president figured it's time to wage war on breathing.

The proposed rollback, which will face legal challenges, will expose the population to more fine particulate matter that is linked to heart and lung disease. Perhaps you've seen the most startling number: The EPA readily admits that eliminating the Clean Power Plan will cause up to 1,400 more premature deaths every year.

It will also increase the number of asthma attacks in children by 40,000, increase the number of heart attacks by 1,700, and create 200,000 more missed school or work days. Every year. So much winning.

But the president's coal obsession is almost as unsettling as his indifference toward the health of the public and the planet.

Utilities have moved away from coal because natural gas, wind and solar are better investments. But Trump can't find another way to reward the Appalachian region and fossil fuel billionaires other than to keep coal plants open as long as possible. At his rallies, he does not mention the coal plants being shuttered in Kentucky and West Virginia. He never mentions how the green tide rolls on: Nationally, there are now 2.3 solar jobs for every coal job.

America is blessed with extraordinary energy abundance, including more than 250 years worth of beautiful clean coal. We have ended the war on coal, and will continue to work to promote American energy dominance! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 18, 2018

His coal coquetry is especially damaging to New Jersey. We have only one such plant, but pollution doesn't respect borders: Between one-third and one-half of our air pollution comes from out of state, as we are downwind from Ohio and Pennsylvania, and Jersey ranks second only to Florida in damage from rising sea levels.

So we need a national solution, the only guardrails are on Capitol Hill, and the silence of the New Jersey delegation from Trump's party is troubling. Reps. Tom MacArthur, Leonard Lance, Chris Smith and Rodney Frelinghuysen won't say whether they agree with gutting these standards.

The one exception is retiring Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-2nd Dist.), who reminds us that he supported reducing carbon emissions from new power plants, but not existing power plants, which is the heart of the Clean Power Plan.

Most states are still on pace to meet their own emission reduction goals by 2030, but New Jersey may not be one of them, according to one study.

Gov. Murphy could, however, set a strong emissions cap through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative; once New Jersey rejoins RGGI, the 10-state carbon market can effectively protect our state from Trump's treachery.

But we need the Plan as a safety net, and it's bad enough that those who oppose it are driven by bad science. They ignore the lives and land fated to be collateral damage in a pointless debate between regulation and the climate calamity that is now all around us.

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