Hot day speech all the way yesterday for President Obama. The temperature topped 90 F. His coat was off before he began. He casually began unbuttoning his shirt cuffs and rolled them up during opening remarks. Then came the long-trumpeted unveiling of the Executive Branch's we'll-do-what-we-can-while-Congress-goes-AWOL policy on climate change and energy use. Not long into it, sure enough, out came the handkerchief to swipe the glistening Presidential brow. Perhaps a few too many well-timed fluorishes of the hankie followed.
But the speech was weighty in content, serious in delivery. It included a several oratorical high points, lots of stats and history (including notaby a ref to the first Apollo Earthrise photo), plenty of the expected warnings of consequences to inaction, and a light seasoning of jabs at his political opposition. One choice line: "I don't have much patience with people who deny this challenge is real. We don't have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society." ba-BUMP. Also replaying in my mind is a recitation of past proclamations from big business and its allies of certain economic ruin from federal enviro policies. The president's examples included the Clean Air Act, Montreal Protocol (to clear ozone killing chemicals), auto fuel economy regs, and sulfur removal from coal plant emissions. To those feared job-killing results he pr0vided a simple refrain: "They Didn't Happen." His explanation: industry is good at inventing ways to meet state and federal ukases while hiring people as it goes.
As expected, he announced no decision whether to ok the hot-button, enviro-rallying Keystone XL pipeline for Canadian tar sands lignite delivery to Louisiana refineries. As further expected he also hinted no big reasons that satisfy the formal requirements for nixing it have yet arisen in the review process. Another hint: he said clearly that ridding ourselves of fossil carbon fuels will take a long time. His declaration most sure to have gotten some applause all across the political spectrum: a salute to the handful of additional, nuclear power plants newly under construction.
And as only recently expected, the Supreme Court up and cut the teeth right out of the Voting Rights Act yesterday. This is a topic of far more emotional intensity and immediate political consequence than any roadmap for saving civilization from a planet too hot for the general welfare. Yet to be seen is whether playing second or worse banana on the daily DC news cycle improves the overall prospects for the President's vision of a more energy-secure, lower carbon, more efficient America.
I missed the live talk but caught up with it fast at WhiteHouse.gov, which put the video tops on its webpage and surely will keep a link there for further viewing. In Grist below is a link to a graphic and caption summary of high points of the plan. Most of them had been drifting through news for a few days but the formal White House layout of it is impressive. News reporters gamely looked for angles with some bite to them. Most selected the no-news on Keystone hook. I'd be tempted to lead on the ambiguity of the action plan's modes of action. Put CO2 limits on power plants, he says. How does one do that with coal? Maybe efficiency, as in kilowatts per ton of coal. So no crummy old plants, only new combined cycle operations. But if on emissions per ton of fuel – that'd be a killer. Sequestration?
Examples of immediate coverage:
- Washington Post – Juliet Eilperin: Obama: Keystone pipeline must not increase greenhouse gases ; A good summary. The first quote not from the president is from the head of the Sierra Club: The president realizes that you can't combat climate change without a direct confrontation with the fossil fuel industry…What has us most encouraged … is he is lacing up his gloves and getting ready for that fight."
- NY Times – Mark Landler, John M. Broder – Obama Outlines Ambitious Plan to Cut Greenhouse Gases; The Times men see history here, declaring that the president has embraced "an issue that oculd define his legacy." Their first non-Obama quote is by House Speaker John Boehner: "These policies… will shutter power plants, destroy good-paying American jobs and raise electricity bills for families that can scarcely afford it." The quote was released before the speech was even made. The story does not quote Obama's anticipatory riposte regarding warnings from just such partisans regarding just such consequences from guv'mint regulations in years past: "They did not happen."
- Scientific American – Robynne Boyd: Obama Looks to the Clean Air Act as Inspiration for Tackling Climate ; Short summary of the speech's cornerstones.
- Politico – Andrew Restuccia: Obama's climate speech: 10 takeaways ; Not a bad rundown but Mr. Restuccia went hyperbolic on naming as his number 1 a "Keystone bombshell." That's just hype. It was not. Even the graf that follows says no one is sure what his pipeline remarks portend.
- AP – Jonathan Fahey: What Obama's climate change proposal means for consumers and energy companies ; It says here the emission limits may mean that few to zero new coal-fired plants will be built.
- Bloomberg – Christopher Flavelle: Obama's Climate Plan Is Vital. And Undemocratic ; Flavelle is on Bloomberg's editorial board. This is an essay for policy wonks. It gets into the proper way to run a representative and multi-branch democratic government. It has nuance, admitting to something one sees too rarely in editorials: uncertainty and openness to further argument.
- LA Times – Neela Banerjee: Obama sets strict test for Keystone XL Pipeline ; Actually, he didn't set a strict standard for the pipeline. He set a strict standard that his regulators must satisfy to stop the project. The Times's first non-Obama quote goes to climate campaigner Bill McKibben. The second to a GOP lawmaker who calls the policy a "war on jobs." How clever is that? The story's last line – Obama's opinion of the Flat Earth Society.
- …could go on…… Let me know of especially notable coverage via this site's suggest a story function and it may get added.
*UPDATE: from reader Stephanie Ogburn came this selection of stories from the mostly-private subscription service E&E Publishing. Ogburn reports for the service's ClimateWire arm.
- Evan Lehmann: Obama makes a moral case to U.S. for combating climate change
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Joel Kirkland, Peter Behr: Obama plan pivots on powerful economic forces behind utility industry
decisions - Hannah Northey, Jason Plautz: Do Republicans need to produce a plan to counter Obama's?
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Stephanie Paige Ogburn: Scientists underscore Obama's concerns about climate change and severe
weather ; from an AGU meeting, mainly, but directly pertinent to Obama's policy talk. It includes a passage on the wavy jetstream that Seth Borenstein went over in this post's top. A cited source makes an interesting point – that even if sea ice melt and other Arctic events right now are wiggling the jet stream, the place is changing so fast it may be an academic question only. By the time persuasive evidence is in place the Arctic might have entered an entirely different weather regime with a new set of climate forcings to puzzle out. -
John McArdle: As Obama advances his climate plan, GOP harks back to cap and trade and sees
political opportunity
The above is generally aimed at a policy and enviro wonky readership, but it is well done and any reporter who covers these things better have a wonky side, too. This package is a tutorial. E&E puts a few of its stories up daily (and leaves them there for a few more days) for general, free reading at its site http://www.eenews.net/ .
Grist for the Mill: White House Plan to Fight Climate Change
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