Ahhh!
Now, this is more like it!
After five plus years of being a disappointment (at least by my estimate), and resembling George W. Bush in far too many ways, President Obama finally announced some real changes that matter, and is starting to resemble a more progressive leader than the one we have seen occupying the White House since January of 2009 - a far different leader than many of us expected after his inspiring campaign of 2008. These changes are aimed at what would be real measures to at least limit carbon emissions by a significant amount in the near future, an issue that the United States in particular has been lagging far behind much of the rest of the world community, particularly other industrialized nations. Furthermore, these do not have any nasty surprises or let downs in them (at least none that are immediately obvious just yet), like Obamacare has (although I still think it is better than the health care system that we had in place before, with a heavy emphasis on privatization and corporate profits).
President Obama is finally beginning to deliver on his promise of placing the environment as the top priority for his second term in the White House, announcing stronger EPA regulation that are aimed at cutting carbon emissions by 20%, in an effort to combat global warming/climate change.
The New York Times had words of praise for Obama on this issue, suggesting that it was "the strongest action ever taken by an American president to tackle climate change."
Some corporations will still emit more than others, of course. But in the new plan, companies can "buy" permits to emit more carbon emissions from others that do not need as much. Here, according to Melissa Clyne's article ("Obama to Announce New EPA Regulations on Monday" - see link below) is how it will work, specifically:
The initiative would allow states to use cap-and-trade systems, which let companies emitting pollutants buy and sell greenhouse gas emission allowances. A cap is set on the total number of permits to dispense carbon emissions. Companies that emit larger amounts of greenhouse gases can buy additional permits from companies that don’t need to emit as many.
In what at least appears to be a bit of a concession to Republicans, who will (it goes without saying) oppose the president's measures, the plan also will empower individual states to come up with solutions that work best for them. Here, according to an article ("Obama planning executive action on carbon emissions " - see link below) by Jane C. Timm:
The new regulation will set a national limit, The New York Times reports, but allow states to plan their own reductions by adding wind and solar power, increasing their energy efficiency, or through cap-and-trade programs, which essentially makes power plants pay to pollute the environment under a certain limit.
President Obama has long promised real, meaningful changes in regards to combatting climate change, but this was the first real, major action that he has taken on it. In praising President Obama, The New York Times even suggested that the US, with President Obama's new measures, might assume the mantle of world leadership on this all-important issue, despite having a history of dragging it's feet on all matter environmental in the last several decades - particular since the so-called "Reagan revolution" of the eighties:
It is clear Mr. Obama’s immediate goal is not to solve the emissions problem, but to get the country moving faster in the right direction. The new rule alone offers little hope that the United States and other nations can achieve cuts on a scale required to meet the internationally agreed limit on global warming. But experts say that achieving the pledge Mr. Obama made in Copenhagen — a 17 percent reduction in the nation’s greenhouse gases by 2020, compared with the 2005 level — would be quite likely, if his plan survives.
Mr. Obama’s effort is aimed not just at charting a new course inside the United States, but at reclaiming for the country the mantle of international leadership in battling climate change. If the policy coaxes more ambitious goals from other countries, experts say it could be a turning point. The test of that will come soon, as world leaders meet in New York in September seeking to make headway on a new global climate treaty. The leaders are supposed to pledge ambitious new emissions targets for their countries by next spring, with a final treaty due in late 2015.
World leadership by the United States on this issue I think might be too tall of an order, certainly at least for now. Again, it would take more than this for the world community to begin to see the United States as truly, seriously committed to cutting emissions and addressing real climate change concerns, after a long history of allowing climate change deniers to control the agenda. That said, it is a definite step in the right direction.
But even the New York Times warns:
Yet, by itself, the president’s plan will barely nudge the global emissions that scientists say are threatening the welfare of future generations.
Still, it is most definitely a positive step, one that no president since Jimmy Carter has apparently been so serious about. There is already opposition, with some claiming that President Obama has declared war on coal, and that these measures will be very costly, to the point of being crippling, to business. Surely, the opposition, which has always been strong with regard to climate change in this country, should prove fierce and very, very vocal.
But for once, President Obama has actually taken strong leadership on a very important issue.
Just how important? I don't think that there is an issue more important than this one, frankly.
“He’s the first American president to permanently push down the U.S. emissions trajectory and get us within striking distance of the kind of global leadership that will be needed to tackle the problem,” said Paul Bledsoe, an energy analyst with the German Marshall Fund of the United States..
And for once, I feel actually proud and happy that we have President Obama in office and not, say, George W. Bush! They were beginning to resemble one another a bit too much for my liking, and it was more than high time for Obama to begin to do something to truly separate himself from his predecessor!
Here are the articles that I used to write this blog entry, including all of the quotes used above:
Trying to Reclaim Leadership on Climate Change by JUSTIN GILLIS and HENRY FOUNTAINJUNE 1, 2014:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/02/us/politics/obama-tries-to-reclaim-leadership-on-climate-change.html?_r=0
Obama to Announce New EPA Regulations on Monday by Melissa Clyne, May 30, 2014:
http://www.newsmax.com/US/epa-rules-carbon-emissions/2014/05/30/id/574264/
Obama planning executive action on carbon emissions by Jane C. Timm,
http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/obama-regulate-carbon-emissions
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