Media outlets are reporting that President-elect Obama delivered a videotaped message to California Governor Schwarzenegger's climate change summit vowing quick action to curb emissions and engage in international talks. Does this mean that climate change legislation is coming?
Conventional wisdom has been that given the current fragile economy it would be unlikely that Congress could be able to enact a cap-and-trade regime until the economy recovers. However, according to MSNBC, Obama's message told the scientists, executives, governors and foreign officials gathered at the conference that "[y]ou can be sure that the United States will once again engage vigorously in these negotiations, and help lead the world toward a new era of global cooperation on climate change." (See Obama: Warming must be tackled now at www.msnbc.com) Obama said that he will establish strong annual targets that set the United States on a course to reduce emission to their 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them an additional 80% by 2050. He said that his goal of $15 billion a year in incentives to get private capital moving towards clean energy technologies would produce five million green jobs that "pay well and can't be outsourced."
Pundits have been saying that Congress is not likely to act on a bill to tackle global warming. However, that does not stop the new administration from enacting administrative actions. Options for climate change regulation include not only legislation on cap and trade policy, but executive orders and regulation, such as pursuant to the clean air act, or litigation based changed brought by public interest environmental law groups to force judicial decisions on these issues. With opposition to regulation under the Clean Air Act for greenhouse gas emission growing, the opponents are bracing themselves for the initiation of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rulemakings and are scrutinizing the EPA's proposed advanced rulemaking.
In any case, President-elect Obama feels the time has come..."Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all," Obama concluded. "Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high. The consequences, too serious."
Conventional wisdom has been that given the current fragile economy it would be unlikely that Congress could be able to enact a cap-and-trade regime until the economy recovers. However, according to MSNBC, Obama's message told the scientists, executives, governors and foreign officials gathered at the conference that "[y]ou can be sure that the United States will once again engage vigorously in these negotiations, and help lead the world toward a new era of global cooperation on climate change." (See Obama: Warming must be tackled now at www.msnbc.com) Obama said that he will establish strong annual targets that set the United States on a course to reduce emission to their 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them an additional 80% by 2050. He said that his goal of $15 billion a year in incentives to get private capital moving towards clean energy technologies would produce five million green jobs that "pay well and can't be outsourced."
Pundits have been saying that Congress is not likely to act on a bill to tackle global warming. However, that does not stop the new administration from enacting administrative actions. Options for climate change regulation include not only legislation on cap and trade policy, but executive orders and regulation, such as pursuant to the clean air act, or litigation based changed brought by public interest environmental law groups to force judicial decisions on these issues. With opposition to regulation under the Clean Air Act for greenhouse gas emission growing, the opponents are bracing themselves for the initiation of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rulemakings and are scrutinizing the EPA's proposed advanced rulemaking.
In any case, President-elect Obama feels the time has come..."Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all," Obama concluded. "Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high. The consequences, too serious."
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Comments for President-Elect Obama Ushers in a "New Era of Global Cooperation on Climate Change"