As mentioned in previous blog entries, several news outlets, including the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, mentioned that the President, in his State of the Union address, would be addressing climate change. Indeed, in his speech the President called upon Congress to act and create a McCain-Liebermanesque solution while promoting his own executive actions.
“I urge this Congress to get together, pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago,” said President Barack Obama. “I will direct my cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.”
Pollution, according to the Obama Administration, includes greenhouse gas emissions, which are already falling in the United States. “And over the last four years, our emissions of the dangerous carbon pollution that threatens our planet have actually fallen, said President Obama. However, burning coal–which was not mentioned specifically in his speech–remains a significant source of greenhouse gas-producing energy in the U.S. and in Europe.
In short,
- The Obama Administration will release regulations on new coal plants this spring, making them infeasible;
- The Obama Administration is contemplating regulations on existing coal plants to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions;
- The U.S. is currently making money by exporting coal to energy-strapped Europe–a result of Europe’s green energy regulations; and
- Regulation of this sector would be bad for the economy, a move proposed by Obama–even though his speech was supposed to be about promoting jobs and economic growth.
“But for the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change,” asserted Obama in his speech. In contrast, Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who made the GOP’s response to the President’s address, said today that ”America is a country, it’s not a planet.”
“So we can pass a bunch of laws or executive orders that will do nothing to change the climate or the weather but will devastate our economy. Devastate it!” asserted Senator Rubio.
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