On Monday, June 2, President Obama will announce his most sweeping policy yet to address global warming — a new rule to cut carbon-dioxide emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants across the United States.
But wait! How can Obama do this without Congress? The trick is he'll be working through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which already has the legal authority to regulate US greenhouse gases.
Since 2009, the EPA has used that authority to ratchet up fuel-economy standards for cars and light trucks. The agency has also imposed strict emissions standards on anyone who wants to build a new power plant in the future.
Now the administration is going even further. On June 2, the EPA will propose a rule to cut carbon-dioxide emissions from the nation's existing coal- and natural gas-fired power plants. The New York Times reports that the rule could require coal plants to reduce their emissions as much as 20 percent (though, as explained below, there are still a lot of unknowns here).
The EPA has a fair bit of leeway in designing this rule, and the precise details will matter a lot. A strict rule that cuts power-plant pollution sharply could help the Obama administration achieve its goal of cutting overall US greenhouse-gas emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. Officials hope that meeting this goal will help persuade other countries like China to do more to address climate change.
But there are risks, too. A rule that's too stringent or badly designed could impose high costs on power plants and hike consumers' electric bills. That, in turn, could trigger a backlash from Congress — which has the power to take away the EPA's authority. What's more, the EPA is entering uncertain legal territory with this rule, and there's always a chance that the courts decide the agency has exceeded its legal mandate and strike down the regulation.
Read more: http://www.vox.com/2014/5/29/5755070/EPA-carbon-power-plants-climate-change
But wait! How can Obama do this without Congress? The trick is he'll be working through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which already has the legal authority to regulate US greenhouse gases.
Since 2009, the EPA has used that authority to ratchet up fuel-economy standards for cars and light trucks. The agency has also imposed strict emissions standards on anyone who wants to build a new power plant in the future.
Now the administration is going even further. On June 2, the EPA will propose a rule to cut carbon-dioxide emissions from the nation's existing coal- and natural gas-fired power plants. The New York Times reports that the rule could require coal plants to reduce their emissions as much as 20 percent (though, as explained below, there are still a lot of unknowns here).
The EPA has a fair bit of leeway in designing this rule, and the precise details will matter a lot. A strict rule that cuts power-plant pollution sharply could help the Obama administration achieve its goal of cutting overall US greenhouse-gas emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. Officials hope that meeting this goal will help persuade other countries like China to do more to address climate change.
But there are risks, too. A rule that's too stringent or badly designed could impose high costs on power plants and hike consumers' electric bills. That, in turn, could trigger a backlash from Congress — which has the power to take away the EPA's authority. What's more, the EPA is entering uncertain legal territory with this rule, and there's always a chance that the courts decide the agency has exceeded its legal mandate and strike down the regulation.
Read more: http://www.vox.com/2014/5/29/5755070/EPA-carbon-power-plants-climate-change
