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Obama to propose 'national plan' on climate change
Topic Started: 26 Jun 2013, 12:38 AM (27 Views)
skibboy
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25 JUNE 2013

Obama to propose 'national plan' on climate change

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Heat waves emanate from the exhaust pipe of a city transit bus on April 25, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.

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A coal scraper machine works on a pile of coal at American Electric Power's (AEP) Mountaineer coal power plant in New Haven, West Virginia, October 30, 2009.

AFP - US President Barack Obama will Tuesday bypass climate change skeptics in Congress and order tough new rules to curb carbon emissions, citing a "moral obligation" to save a warming planet.

Obama will also commit to new international efforts to slow carbon pollution, including withdrawing US support for coal-fired power plants abroad and offering to discuss new initiatives with big emitters like India and China.

And he will pledge to prepare the United States for the impact of climate change, which his administration now no longer sees as a distant challenge, while seeking to boost renewable energy forms like wind and solar.

Obama will make the commitments in a speech at Georgetown University, laying out a national strategy that will mark his most serious bid yet to honor earlier promises to fight climate change.

But the specifics of much of his plan were unclear, and many of Obama's new rules could face court challenges that would delay their implementation.

The president will be using the executive powers of his office since Congress, where there is widespread skepticism of climate change science and fear about the economic impact of mitigation efforts, has refused to act.

As such, they will lack the sweep that legislative efforts would have in establishing a carbon emissions trading scheme and enforcing change in US energy policy.

Previewing the speech, aides said Obama will require the Environmental Protection Agency to work with states and industry to establish tough new carbon pollution standards for new and existing power plants.

Some opponents of his approach have warned that the plan could result in older coal-fired plants being taken offline and may thereby raise electricity prices for consumers, which could disproportionately hurt the poor.

Officials counter that the plan will reduce the amount of electricity used -- thereby reducing fuel bills.

The plan will make $8 billion in loan guarantees available to promote advanced fossil energy and efficiency projects to support investments in innovative technologies, officials familiar with the speech said.

It also directs the Department of the Interior to permit projects using renewable energy sources like wind and solar on public lands by 2020 to power more than six million homes.

Obama will also set a goal of reducing carbon pollution by three billion metric tons by 2030 -- a figure equivalent to more than half of the annual carbon pollution from the US energy sector.

US government scientists say that global temperatures last month tied with 1998 and 2005 as the third warmest for the month of May since record-keeping began in 1880.

Obama's speech will come a week after a World Bank report warned that severe hardships from global warming could be felt within a generation, and include widespread food shortages, unprecedented heat waves and intense cyclones.

Officials made clear that Obama would not use the speech to give a decision about the Keystone XL pipeline, a massive project to bring oil from Canada's tar sands to the US Gulf Coast that has been slammed by environmentalists.

They said a State Department study was still assessing a presidential permit transaction for the pipeline, which was not yet ready.

Some environmental campaigners expect Obama to approve the pipeline, but to argue that he has already taken rigorous efforts to fight climate change.

Climate and environmental groups praised Obama's speech in advance.

Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said his speech was an "important step in the journey to end industrial carbon pollution."

Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at London School of Economics welcomed Obama's "personal leadership."

But he warned: "Without the support of Congress for new federal legislation, the president is fighting this battle with one hand tied behind his back."

And Bill Snape, of the Washington-based Center for Biological Diversity, said what Obama was proposing "isn't big enough, and doesn't move fast enough, to match the terrifying magnitude of the climate crisis."

Republicans however accused Obama of waging a "war on coal" that would slap onerous regulations and unreasonable environmental targets on power stations.

"Declaring a 'War on Coal' is tantamount to declaring a war on jobs," said the Senate's top Republican Mitch McConnell.

"It's tantamount to kicking the ladder out from beneath the feet of many Americans struggling in today's economy."

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skibboy
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25 JUNE 2013

Obama's climate strategy falls short: experts

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Tulips are seen in a flower bed in Lafayette Square across from the White House on April 22, 2013 in Washington.

AFP - Environmental groups on Tuesday said US President Barack Obama's plan to combat climate change is long overdue but will not be enough to reverse a global problem that is outpacing the solutions.

Some experts warned it will be an uphill battle to implement the policies Obama announced, using his executive powers since US lawmakers are unable to come to agreement on how to preserve the economy while cutting pollution.

A key obstacle will be to finalize standards on power plants before Obama leaves office in three years, and the missing link is a carbon tax to punish polluters and reward greener power endeavors, some experts said.

The Center for Biological Diversity described Obama's plan as "modest" and warned it falls short by failing to set a nationwide pollution cap for carbon dioxide at no greater than 350 parts per million.

"We're happy to see the president finally addressing climate change but the plain truth is that what he's proposing isn't big enough, and doesn't move fast enough, to match the terrifying magnitude of the climate crisis," said senior counsel Bill Snape.

"The White House can't punt on hard climate questions," he added, noting that the plans ignores dangers posed by Arctic drilling, fracking for natural gas and the controversial Keystone pipeline proposal from Canada to the US.

Snape also said the plan aims to put the US on the path to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by four percent below 1990 levels by 2020, though that reduction would fall short of US pledges under the Kyoto Protocol "and would not be enough to avert catastrophic temperature rises, according to climate scientists."

A centerpiece of the strategy involves power plants, which are responsible for 40 percent of carbon pollution but have no limits imposed by the federal government on how much carbon they may release.

The president has called on the Environmental Protection Agency to issue a proposal to regulate carbon dioxide from existing coal plants by 2014 and make it final by 2015, but there are no details on what that would entail or cost.

"Power plant carbon standards will be job one and he'll need to make sure they're finalized well before his administration ends," said Alden Meyer, strategy and policy director of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

"Ultimately, we will also need a price on carbon emissions that reflects the rising costs of climate change. Congress will have to step up to the plate," said Meyers.

The UCS and the World Resources Institute agreed that Obama's goal, announced in 2009, of reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 to 17 percent below 2005 levels is possible.

"The Obama Administration has the tools to achieve the country's 17 percent target, and drive greater reductions ahead. For the sake of future generations, we cannot afford to wait," said Andrew Steer, WRI president.

"Tackling carbon pollution from power plants is the greatest opportunity and should be at the core of any serious approach to reduce US emissions. For the first time, a US president is taking such action."

While many experts applauded Obama for finally announcing some action, they also cautioned that the problem of global warming is growing worse, and needs more action.

"The problem has become much bigger while the US was ignoring it," said Saleemul Huq, senior fellow in the International Institute for Environment and Development's climate change group.

"Hence the world is now headed towards 4-degree temperature rise by 2100 unless much more drastic actions are undertaken on mitigation by all countries including the United States."

"President Obama says he wants the US to lead this effort globally. His promise is welcome, but his actions still fall short of what is required."

According to Eileen Claussen, president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, Obama faces an uphill climb.

"Implementing the president's plan will be extremely challenging. But a clear majority of the American public favors stronger climate action, and with a plan in place, the administration must now follow through with a true sense of urgency," Claussen said.

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