WHITE HOUSE, SENATE DEMS. SET TO UNVEIL CLIMATE PLANS NEXT MONTH

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
6/21/13

The Obama Administration and Senate Democrats appear set to unveil a broad set of regulations, guidance and legislation aimed at clamping down on greenhouse gas emissions in the coming weeks. During a forum held by the New Republic magazine in Washington this week, Obama’s top energy and climate aide Heather Zichal confirmed that the President will be making a climate-related announcement in the weeks ahead and that rules under Clean Air Act would be a major component. However, she stopped short of saying that the Environmental Protection Agency will be issuing regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants.

To date, the EPA has introduced standards for future power plants, but the Administration missed its April deadline to finalize those rules and has said that it has “no plans” to regulate carbon from existing sources. “The Clean Air Act is a tool that we know that we can implement with success,” Zichal said, referring to recently-finalized standards for mercury emissions from power plants and landmark fuel economy standards for cars and trucks. “We know that we can set clear rules of the road, and we can frankly do that in a manner that garners bipartisan support.”

‘Legacy Issue’

Zichal said that energy efficiency and renewable energy deployment will be two other key components of any White House climate plan. “I think that the Administration has been very focused on what are the tools that we have across all the agencies to really drive significant emissions reductions, what are the tools that are really going to help us achieve the president’s broader objective of reducing emissions 17 percent by 2020. Certainly, the EPA rules will be very important in that endeavor, and that’s something that we’re very focused on,” she said, adding that “depoliticizing” climate change will be a component of that plan as well. “The era of delay and denial is over. It’s time to turn this issue from a red-state, blue-state issue into an American issue,” she said. Zichal added that the President knows climate change is a “legacy issue.”

In a speech this week in Berlin, Obama underscored the need to work with other nations to mitigate climate change. “With a global middle class consuming more energy every day, this must now be an effort of all nations, not just some. For the grim alternative affects all nations: more severe storms, more famine and floods, new waves of refugees, coastlines that vanish, oceans that rise. This is the future we must avert. This is the global threat of our time,” he said. “For the sake of future generations, our generation must move toward a global compact to confront a changing climate before it is too late.”

Congress to Mull Carbon Tax Legislation in July

The Obama Administration’s remarks were also met with pledges from its allies in the Senate, who also have vowed to introduce legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector. The Hill reported late last week that the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will consider carbon tax legislation in July. Introduced in February by progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the measure would set a $20 price on carbon emissions for the country’s 2,900 largest polluters and raise roughly $1.2 trillion in new revenue over the next 10 years, the benefactors said. The bill would use the money to fund a rebate program for consumers, clean energy R&D work, worker training programs and debt reduction, among other initiatives. Companion legislation would end all fossil fuel subsidies and tax credits while terminating the Department of Energy’s Fossil Energy R&D program.

While the measure is not expected to gain the support of any Republicans, it is aimed at putting the GOP on the record about climate change. A majority of senators—including several moderate Democrats—said they were not supportive of a carbon tax during a vote on a non-binding measure this spring, despite what appeared to be a growing momentum in support for such a pricing mechanism. News also surfaced June 20 that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is also planning to introduce legislation soon that would price carbon emissions from power plants at $10 per ton. The Hill reported that the measure, though, would be narrower than some of the other climate bills currently being floated around Capitol Hill.

Republican opposition to such measures, though, remains staunch. During a June 20 press conference, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) called the recent news of the White House climate plan “absolutely crazy.” “Why would you want to increase the cost of energy and kill more American jobs at a time when American people are asking the question, ‘where are the jobs?” he said.