Executive Action In a Good Way

Roosevelt Island, NY

This time the CO is taking a step in the right direction by using his executive authority to step around a deadlocked Congress. According to the New York Times, he will announce on Monday a new rule to cut carbon emissions from coal burning power plants by 20%. The Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. This decision could be a shinning beacon in the mirk of an overly compromised term of office, or it could be offset by a later decision to go ahead with the environmentally disastrous Keystone XL pipeline project. People familiar with the rule's content say it sets a national limit on carbon pollution from power plants, but allows each state to make its own plans based on a menu of options that include adding more alternative energy to their fuel mix. Coal plants are the nation's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. The rule could cause many older coal plants to shut down.

In 2010 the administration attempted to pass a carbon cap & trade scheme through Congress. Predictable, conservatives howled their disapproval and blocked it. Nevertheless the two states in the union that have cap & trade plans, California and Massachsetts, had Repugnant governors at the time the legislation was passed. Now the federal government will resort to administrative rule-making to implement the program at the national level. Gina McCarthy, the current EPA administrator, worked on the Massachusetts plan, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, for Governor Mitch Romney. He later disavowed the program when attacked by right-wing climate change deniers. Despite the crazies on the right, electric utility officials generally approve of cap & trade as a flexible way to comply with the new regulation. US Person is wary of the comoditization of carbon credits as a viable solution. Trading in credits could become more important that meeting emission reduction goals. He prefers the old school method of cap & regulate to gain real reductions in greenhouse emmissions.