Obama Set to Impose Cuts on
Power Sector, ‘War on coal’ legislation considered president’s legacy on
climate change, 8/2/15
(AP) – President Barack Obama
will impose even steeper cuts on greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. power
plants than previously expected, senior administration officials said Sunday,
in what the president called the most significant step the U.S. has ever taken
to fight global warming. A year after proposing unprecedented carbon dioxide
limits, Obama was poised to finalize the rule at a White House event on Monday.
In a video posted to Facebook, Obama said the limits were backed up by decades
of data showing that without tough action, the world will face more extreme
weather and escalating health problems like asthma. “Climate change is not a
problem for another generation,” Obama said. “Not anymore.”
Opponents vowed to sue
immediately, and planned to ask the courts to put the rule on hold while legal
challenges play out. Many states have threatened not to comply. In his initial
proposal, Obama had mandated a 30 percent nationwide cut in carbon dioxide
emissions by 2030, compared to 2005 levels.
The final version will require
a 32 percent cut instead, said the officials, who weren’t authorized to comment
by name and requested anonymity. The final rule also gives states an additional
two years — until 2022 — to comply, officials said, yielding to complaints that
the original deadline was too soon. States will also have until 2018 instead of
2017 to submit their plans for how they’ll meet their targets. But the
administration will attempt to incentivize states to take action earlier by
offering credits to states that boost renewable sources like wind and solar in
2020 and 2021, officials said.
The focus on renewables marks a
significant shift from the earlier version that sought to accelerate the
ongoing transition from coal-fired power to natural gas plants, which emit far
less carbon dioxide. The revised rule aims to keep the share of natural gas in
the nation’s power mix at current levels.
The stricter limits in the
final plan were certain to incense energy industry advocates who had already
balked at the more lenient limits in the proposed plan. But the Obama
administration said its tweaks would cut energy costs and address concerns
about power grid reliability. The Obama administration previously predicted the
emissions limits will cost up to $8.8 billion annually by 2030, although it
said those costs would be far outweighed by health savings from fewer asthma
attacks and other benefits. The actual price won’t be clear until states decide
how they’ll reach their targets.
America’s largest source of
greenhouse gases, power plants account for roughly one-third of all U.S.
emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases blamed for global
warming. Obama’s rule assigns customized targets to each state, then leaves it
up to the state to determine how to meet them. In the works for years, the
power plant rule forms the cornerstone of Obama’s plan to curb U.S. emissions
and keep global temperatures from climbing, and its success is pivotal to the
legacy Obama hopes to leave on climate change. Never before has the U.S. sought
to restrict carbon dioxide from existing power plants. By clamping down on
power plant emissions, Obama is also working to increase his leverage and
credibility with other nations whose commitments he’s seeking for a global
climate treaty to be finalized later this year in Paris. As its contribution to
that treaty, the U.S. has pledged to cut overall emissions 26 percent to 28
percent by 2025, compared to 2005.
Even before the rule was
finalized, more than a dozen states announced plans to fight it. At the urging
of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, some Republican
governors have declared they simply won’t comply, setting up a certain
confrontation with the Environmental Protection Agency, which by law can force
its own plan on states that fail to submit implementation plans. Yet even in
many of those states, power companies and local utility authorities have
started preparing to meet the targets. New, more efficient plants that are
replacing older and dirtier ones have already pushed emissions down nearly 13
percent since 2005, putting them about halfway to meeting Obama’s goal.
In Congress, lawmakers have
sought to use legislation to stop Obama’s regulation. McConnell has also tried
previously to use an obscure, rarely successful maneuver to allow Congress to
vote it down. The more serious threat to Obama’s rule will likely come in the
courts. The Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, which represents energy
companies, said 20 to 30 states were poised to join with industry in suing over
the rule. The Obama administration has a mixed track record in fending off
legal challenges to its climate rules.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150802/us-obama-power-plants-c4787dfcb7.html
http://www.teaparty.org/obama-set-to-announce-steeper-emissions-cuts-from-us-power-plants-111054/
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