Sun setting for Obama on new climate approach
President to announce plan to address global warming
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is running out of time to make good on his vow to confront climate change head-on, and Congress is in no mood to help.
Moving ahead on his own, Obama will announce a set of actions today that will take years to implement.
The centerpiece of the plan is a push to issue new regulations that would curb greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants, according to people briefed on the plan by the administration.
Other components will include energy efficiency, renewable energy sources and help for communities preparing for the effects of climate change.
“This is a serious challenge, but it’s one uniquely suited to America’s strengths,” Obama said Saturday in a White House video announcing the speech at Georgetown University.
Yet environmental activists are frustrated that Obama, despite deeming climate change a priority as far back as his first presidential campaign, waited until his fifth year in office to issue a detailed plan. In his State of the Union address in February, Obama gave lawmakers an ultimatum that if Congress wouldn’t pass climate legislation, he would take action himself. Four months later, Obama appears to be done waiting.
“His view reflects reality,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday. “We’ve seen Congress attempt to deal with this issue and fail to.”
Days earlier, as word came of Obama’s plans for existing power plants, House Speaker John Boehner called it “absolutely crazy,” making clear the obstacles Obama would face in trying to push anything through Congress.
In going it alone, Obama’s options are somewhat limited. But environmental activists say taking action to reduce the heat-trapping gases that coal-fired power plants emit would have the most impact. Forty percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, and one-third of greenhouse gases overall, come from electric power plants, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the Energy Department’s statistical agency.
The Environmental Protection Agency, using its authority under the Clean Air Act, has proposed rules for new power plants, but those rules have been delayed. Although finalizing the rules for new plants probably would compel the government to take similar action on existing plants, the Obama administration until now has insisted it’s focused on new plants.
People briefed on Obama’s plan for existing plants, who were not authorized to discuss the plan publicly and demanded anonymity, said that rather than issue a specific new standard, Obama will announce he is directing his administration to work with states and interested parties to develop a cost-effective, flexible system that can curb emissions without costing so much as to create negative economic impacts. That is a process that will last years. “If EPA proceeds with regulations, they should be based on adequately demonstrated technology and provide an achievable timeframe to allow the coal industry to continue advancing clean coal technologies,” said Mike Duncan, who runs the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.
So if Obama wants to see the new rules realized while he is still in charge, he has to start now.
Under the process outlined in the Clean Air Act, the EPA can’t act unilaterally but must work with states to develop the standards, said Jonas Monast, an attorney who directs the climate and energy program at Duke University.