{"id":6888,"date":"2013-08-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insulation.org\/io\/articles\/obama-climate-strategy-to-be-driven-by-natural-gas-and-renewables\/"},"modified":"2013-08-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-08-01T00:00:00","slug":"obama-climate-strategy-to-be-driven-by-natural-gas-and-renewables","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/insulation.org\/io\/articles\/obama-climate-strategy-to-be-driven-by-natural-gas-and-renewables\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama Climate Strategy to Be Driven by Natural Gas and Renewables"},"content":{"rendered":"

President
\nBarack Obama’s landmark speech on June 25 outlining executive actions to combat
\nand prepare for climate change backed the growth of natural gas and renewable
\npower in lieu of carbon-heavy coal power, but he mentioned nuclear power only
\nonce—and only in the context of energy security.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The
\nPresident’s speech closely mirrored the White House’s June 25 release of a 21-page
\nblueprint, a document the President called a Climate Action Plan (CAP), which
\ncharts the executive branch’s efforts to achieve its 2009 pledge to reduce U.S.
\ngreenhouse gases (GHGs) by 17% from 2005 levels by 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

Curbing Carbon Through GHG Rules for Power
\nPlants<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

The plan “begins” with
\nslashing carbon pollution by “changing the way we use energy,” Obama said. That
\nwould require “using less dirty energy, using more clean energy, wasting less
\nenergy throughout our economy.” But this does not mean “we’re going to suddenly
\nstop producing fossil fuels,” he said. “Our economy wouldn’t run very well if
\nit did. And transitioning to a clean energy economy takes time.”<\/span><\/p>\n

However,
\n40% of U.S. carbon pollution is emitted by power plants, and no federal limits
\nto the amount of carbon pollution exist, the President noted. “We limit the
\namount of toxic chemicals like mercury and sulfur and arsenic in our air or our
\nwater, but power plants can still dump unlimited amounts of carbon pollution
\ninto the air for free. That’s not right, that’s not safe, and it needs to stop.”<\/span><\/p>\n

As a
\nfirst measure to combat climate change, the President therefore directed the
\nEnvironmental Protection Agency (EPA) to complete issuance of its final New
\nSource Performance Standards for GHG emissions, which it has postponed, missing
\nits April 13 deadline because it was reportedly still reviewing more than 2
\nmillion comments on its proposal. That rule establishes carbon dioxide
\nstandards for certain new and reconstructed coal and gas generators, limiting
\nemissions to 1,000 pounds\/MWh. President Obama called on the EPA, however, to
\ndevelop standards for that rule affecting new power plants—and another for
\nexisting power plants—”in an open and transparent way, to provide flexibility
\nto different states with different needs, and build on the leadership that many
\nstates, and cities, and companies have already shown.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The
\nSupreme Court has ruled GHGs are pollutants covered by the Clean Air Act, and
\nthe EPA had in 2009 determined GHGs are a threat to public health and welfare
\nand therefore subject to regulation, the President noted. Meanwhile, a “dozen
\nstates” have already implemented their own market-based programs to reduce
\ncarbon pollution, 25 have set energy efficiency targets, and 35 have set
\nrenewable energy targets. “It’s just time for Washington to catch up with the
\nrest of the country,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heavy on Natural Gas and Renewables<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

Though
\nthe President mentioned his much-reiterated “all-of-the-above” energy strategy,
\nhe prominently lauded increased U.S. production of what he called
\n“cleaner-burning” natural gas. “We should strengthen our position as the top
\nnatural gas producer because, in the medium term at least, it not only can
\nprovide safe, cheap power, but it can also help reduce our carbon emissions,”
\nhe said. Natural gas is creating jobs, lowering power bills, and “it’s the
\ntransition fuel that can power our economy with less carbon pollution even as
\nour businesses work to develop and then deploy more of the technology required
\nfor the even cleaner energy economy of the future.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Obama
\nalso called for doubling current levels of renewables by 2020. Notably, he
\ncalled on the federal government to source 20% of its power from renewables by
\n2020 and urged the Department of the Interior to approve over the next 7 years
\nan additional 10 GW (beyond the 10 GW already permitted) of private renewable
\nenergy capacity on public lands. He also called on the Department of Defense to
\ninstall 3 GW of renewable power on its bases.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Nuclear-Shy Plan<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

In the President’s
\nspeech, as in the White House’s CAP blueprint, mention of nuclear power’s
\nfuture role as a clean energy source to combat climate change was largely
\nabsent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Industry
\nexperts had expected the White House’s climate change strategy to be founded on
\nrecommendations by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and
\nTechnology (PCAST) released this March. The council called for continued
\nefforts to “decarbonize the economy,” with an emphasis on the power sector, and
\nremoval of regulatory obstacles (such as lower financing costs) to “level the
\nplaying field” for renewables, carbon capture and storage, nuclear power, and
\nenergy-efficiency technologies. PCAST had specifically lauded nuclear’s role in
\nefforts to curb climate change, saying: “Achieving low-carbon goals without a
\nsubstantial contribution from nuclear power is possible, but extremely
\ndifficult.”<\/span><\/p>\n

In
\nhis recent speech, the President noted that nuclear was a key of the U.S.
\nstrategy for a secure energy future—and that the country’s first new nuclear
\nplants had broken ground this year for the first time in 3 decades. But while
\nfuture efforts to curb climate change would require the use of “more clean
\nenergy,” he set the focus on doubling wind and solar energy from current levels
\nby 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marvin
\nFertel, President and CEO of industry lobby group the Nuclear Energy Institute
\n(NEI) told POWERnews on Tuesday that the administration was well aware that the
\nnation could not reach its energy and climate goals without nuclear power.
\n“President Obama recognized this during the presidential campaign when he said,
\n?It is unlikely we can meet our aggressive climate goals if we eliminate
\nnuclear power as an option.’ Likewise, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz supports
\nthe expansion of nuclear energy to meet national energy and environmental
\nimperatives,” Fertel said. “We look forward to working with the administration
\nto help achieve these extremely important goals.”<\/span><\/p>\n

International Efforts<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

Notable
\nglobal measures called for by the President in his speech included an outright
\ntermination of U.S. public financing for new foreign coal plants without carbon
\ncapture.<\/span><\/p>\n

The
\npledge could bar the U.S.-backed Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank from financing a
\nnumber of major fossil fuel power plants. According to environmental group
\nPacific Environment, the Ex-Im Bank has supported a number of massive projects,
\nincluding financing for the 4-GW Sasan coal project in India and the<\/span> <\/span>4.8-GW Kusile coal
\nproject in South Africa. The lender’s financing for fossil fuel projects
\n(including oil-field exploration, pipelines, refineries, and gas power plants)
\nreached $9.6 billion in the 2012 fiscal year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Obama
\nsaid he would direct his administration to launch negotiations toward global
\nfree trade in environmental goods and services, including clean energy
\ntechnology, to help more countries skip past the dirty phase of development.
\n“They don’t have to repeat all the same mistakes that we made.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Another
\nsignificant action pledged by the President was to “redouble . . . efforts” to
\nengage international partners in reaching a new global agreement to reduce
\ncarbon pollution through concrete actions. “What we need is an agreement that’s
\nambitious—because that’s what the scale of the challenge demands. We need an
\ninclusive agreement—because every country has to play its part. And we need an
\nagreement that’s flexible—because different nations have different needs,” he
\nsaid.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Reason to Act<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

As he had in his February
\n2013 State of the Union address, President Obama urged Congress to come up with
\na bipartisan, “market-based” solution to climate change. “But this is a challenge
\nthat does not pause for partisan gridlock. It demands our attention now,” he
\nsaid.<\/span><\/p>\n

The President briefly summarized the history of climate
\nchange science. He pointed out that scientists have known since the 1800s that
\nGHGs like CO2<\/sub> trap heat and “that burning fossil fuels release those
\ngases into the air.” But he noted that only in the 1950s did concerns emerge
\n(from the National Weather Service) that rising GHG levels might disrupt the
\n“fragile balance.” That data “accumulated and reviewed over decades, tells us
\nthat our planet is changing in ways that will have profound impacts on all of
\nhumankind,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

No
\nsingle weather event could be caused solely by climate change, the President
\nsaid, but there is consensus that the world is warmer than it used to be, and
\n“all weather events are affected by a warming planet.” It is fact that the 12
\nwarmest years in recorded history have all come in the past 15 years, and that
\nlast year, temperatures in some areas of the ocean reached record highs, and
\nice in the Arctic shrank to its smallest size on record—faster than most models
\nhad predicted it would. It is also fact that sea level in New York Harbor is a
\nfoot higher than a century ago, he said. “That didn’t cause Hurricane Sandy,
\nbut it certainly contributed to the destruction that left large parts of our
\nmightiest city dark and underwater.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Climate change could have a measurable economic impact,
\nhe suggested: “Farmers see crops wilted one year, washed away the next; and the
\nhigher food prices get passed on to you, the American consumer. Americans
\nacross the country are already paying the price of inaction in insurance
\npremiums, state and local taxes, and the costs of rebuilding and disaster
\nrelief.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The
\nquestion is not “whether we need to act,” the President said, pointing to an
\n“overwhelming judgment of science—of chemistry and physics and millions of
\nmeasurements,” it is “whether we will have the courage to act before it is too
\nlate.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Barack Obama’s landmark speech on June 25 outlining executive actions to combat and prepare for climate change backed the growth of natural gas and renewable power in lieu of carbon-heavy coal power, but he mentioned nuclear power only once—and only in the context of energy security. 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