Ernest Moniz and Gina McCarthy have been instrumental in reducing US emissions so far (Pic: Sandia Labs/Flickr)

By Sophie Yeo

A Google+ Hangout hosted by the White House will be a chance for US energy secretary Ernest Moniz and Environment Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy to address the biggest environmental move of Obama’s presidency so far: his plans to cut emissions from existing coal-fired power plants.

The regulations are due by the 1 June, and will be the ultimate litmus test of the success of Obama’s Climate Action Plan, in which he promised to bypass Congress to achieve the US target of reducing emissions 17% on 2005 levels by 2020.

The Hangout will take place on Monday 19 May at 1pm ET, and participants can submit questions to Moniz and McCarthy over Google+, Facebook and Twitter, using the hashtag #WHClimateChat.

“We’ll be chatting about climate change and the steps we’re taking to reduce carbon pollution, prepare for the impacts of climate change, and build a clean energy economy – including an upcoming rule that would cut carbon pollution from existing power plants,” wrote Alex Wall, the White House deputy director of online engagement, in a blog post.

Last week, the government’s National Climate Assessment said that climate change was a present day threat to America, causing longer, hotter summers and more intense rainfall.

The Hangout is a sign of Obama’s drive to place climate change at the top of his agenda.

During his second term, he has worked around a recalcitrant Congress to impose a number of measures to tackle global warming, including regulations for new coal-fired power plants, new fuel efficiency standards, and a US$1 billion climate resilience fund.

RTCC understands that the White House is now recruiting new staff to revamp its climate change division ahead of next year’s UN conference in Paris.

John Holdren, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said on Tuesday that Obama is personally committed to seeing his Climate Action Plan completed, and hopes to finalise policies before the elections in 2017.

“Clearly the president regards this as part of his legacy to really turn the country around on climate change and he aims to get that done,” Holdren said.

“I’m not terribly worried about reversal in 2017, but I do want to get done—and the president wants to get done—as much of this as possible on his watch.”

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EPA administrator Gina McCarthy will visit China next week, where pollution is causing public anger

1 – China can learn from the US, says chief environmental regulator
Gina McCarthy, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said yesterday that China can learn from America’s own struggle to reduce pollution, Reuters reports. She was speaking ahead of a visit to Beijing, Shanghai and other Chinese cities next week, where air pollution can reach hazardous levels.

2 – Greg Hunt defends scrapping carbon pricing
Speaking in Melbourne, Australian environment minister Greg Hunt has said that the government’s decision to scrap the “brutal” carbon pricing system is consistent with action being taken in other countries, and that the replacement Direct Action approach will be in place for decades, the Guardian reports. He said the new scheme, which has been criticised across the globe, will pass the senate by July next year.

3 – Canada’s bid to become energy “superpower” at risk
Delays to the approval of new oil pipelines is threatening Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s hopes that the country will emerge as an energy “superpower”. This means Canada can’t get its surging crude supplies to markets in Asia where prices are higher than in North America. “The reality is it’s by no means certain which of them will be approved and built,” Judith Dwarkin, director of energy research at ITG Investment Research Inc. told Bloomberg.

4 – UN carbon offset market ‘in a coma’
Project developers say that the UN’s carbon offset market is likely to remain in a coma for years, following the failure of countries to resolve its difficulties at UN climate talks in Warsaw this month, according to Reuters. Investments in the $315 billion Clean Development Mechanism have ground to a halt as the value of credits has dropped 95% over the past five years to around €0.30.

 5 – Delayed car emissions targets to cost EU £21bn
A compromise made last week over the EU’s new car emissions regulations will end up costing the EU £21billion, warns campaign group Transport & Environment. Business Green reports that plans to bring in implementation of a new 95g CO2/km target a year later than planned could cost motorists nearly £650 each.

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Gina McCarthy said that being confirmed as EPA administrator was the “honour of a lifetime”

By Sophie Yeo

There is no dichotomy between the environment and the economy, Gina McCarthy told an audience at Harvard during her inaugural address as administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Addressing an audience at Harvard Law School, she joked, “Can we stop talking about environment regulations killing jobs, please – just for today?”

She said that environmental improvement, rather than slowing the economy, was actually sparking economic growth, and that part of the challenge of climate change today was convincing the public of the advantages of cost effective solutions to environmental improvement.

No one saw Hurricane Sandy as an environmental challenge, she said. The storm, was cost $50 billion to clear up, was regarded as an economic disaster.

All too often, she said, discussion of the environment falls back on a false dichotomy between the health of our children and the health of the economy, whereas in fact, she said, “We need to cut carbon pollution to grow jobs and to strengthen the economy.

“Let’s embrace this as the opportunity of a lifetime because there are too many lives at stake not to.”

Challenges

McCarthy faces a series of tough challenges as she sets to work at the EPA. Top of her list are new regulations for power plants, which are likely to see coal plants close as a result of stringent pollution standards.

Her speech focused on the need to work together with local governments, NGOs, scientists and lawyers, to allow ground level action to filter up to the level of the federal government.

She recalled past environmental efforts at a local level, such as the cleaning up of Boston Harbour – a project towards which she joked she harboured a secret resentment, since it meant she could no longer afford property in the area.

It is, she said, environmental action such as this that “will grow and be models across the US.”

She said, “Climate change efforts and reducing carbon will always win if we approach it in this way, with communities acting on the ground.”

The EPA, she admitted, is facing increasingly complicated challenges, but, she said, “We are not just about rules and regulations.

“We are about getting environmental improvement wherever it makes sense to improve, and that is everywhere.”

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Republicans say McCarthy (L) will be charged with President Obama’s “draconian” plan to target greenhouse gas emissions

By Sophie Yeo

The work starts now for Gina McCarthy, the newly appointed chief of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Narrowly voted in by the Senate yesterday at 59 to 40 votes, she now shoulders the burden of implementing Obama’s Climate Action Plan proposals, while staving off the opposition of the Republicans, which is likely to manifest itself in a flurry of legal challenges.

Along with John Kerry, the Secretary of State, and Ernest Moniz, the Secretary of Energy, she will be part of the core team helping Obama to reach US emissions targets, a 17% reduction by 2020.

The vote puts an end to a four month battle with the Republicans who have tried to delay her election.

For many, this was because they oppose the EPA itself, rather than McCarthy, who is known for her bipartisan work ethic, having served under five Republican governors as well as her current work under the Obama administration.

Senator Joe Manchin, the only Democrat to vote against McCarthy in yesterday’s standoff, said in a statement, “I voted against Gina McCarthy to be the next Administrator of the EPA, but my fight is not with her.

“My fight is with President Obama and the EPA, the regulatory agency that has consistently placed unreasonable regulations and unobtainable standards on energy production, rather than focus on efforts to develop a domestic all-of-the-above energy strategy for the future.”

His views echo those of many Republicans, who object to what they see as the aggressive extension of power by the EPA.

Obama issued a directive to the agency during his speech last month at Georgetown University to bypass the deadlocked Congress and curb emissions from the power plants, which currently generate 40% of carbon emissions in the USA.

To many, McCarthy’s confirmation represents a consolidation of Obama’s “war on coal” at the heart of the government.

War on coal?

­Taking action on power plants is likely to feature high on McCarthy’s agenda.

The EPA started taking action on the emission from existing power plants last year, yet there are currently no regulations on the carbon emitted by existing plants.

This will soon change: the memorandum issued to the EPA by the President has set a deadline of June 2014 to decide on proposed carbon pollution standards, which they then have a year to finalise.

According to John Mitchell, Associate Fellow for energy, environment and resources at Chatham House, McCarthy’s “active agenda” is what the EPA needs to prompt it into action on its emissions targets.

“There’s a great deal of administrative follow up that needs to be done to make those things effective. It’s important to have somebody at the head of the EPA who has sympathy with the objective,” he told RTCC.

Keystone pipeline

She will come under pressure in her handling of the Keystone XL pipeline controversy, a construction project that would pump 800,00 barrels of crude oil per day from Alberta’s tar sand to refineries on the US Gulf Coast – a move deemed catastrophic by environmentalists.

The EPA is one of the eight government agencies currently responsible for reviewing the project. The agency has tried to persuade TransCanada Corp. to power its pumps using renewable energy, a measure rejected by the company.

Although Obama has been less authoritative on this matter, his speech has been celebrated by campaigning groups such as 350.org as a sign that he might reject the project.

“Allowing the Keystone pipeline to be built requires a finding that doing so would be in our nation’s interest,” he said.

“Our national interest will be served only if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution. The net effects of the pipeline’s impact on our climate will be absolutely critical to determining whether this project is allowed to go forward.”

As from 1 October, McCarthy will be working under a new budget.

The Senate budget has proposed $296 million in cuts to the EPA, while the competing proposal from the House of Representatives is critical of the Senate’s subsidising of the renewables industry, and states its intention to “roll back such federal intervention and corporate-welfare spending across energy sectors.”

Whatever McCarthy puts at the top of her “to do” list, she can be sure that she will face legal challenges.

“There are always legal challenges in the United States whatever happens,” says Mitchell, “but she’s in as good as position as she can be. I think her appointment is positive news.”

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Gina McCarthy, Obama’s choice for the next Environmental Protection Agency leader, has faced opposition from Republicans

By Sophie Yeo

Coal ash, toxic substances and power plant emissions should be a priority for Gina McCarthy if she is appointed to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an environmental scientist at Duke University has suggested.

William Chameides, the Nicholas Professor of the Environment at Duke University in North Carolina, said that the EPA should designate coal ash as a hazardous material, reform the Toxic Substance Control Act and propose carbon dioxide emissions rules for existing power plants if McCarthy takes up the position.

Chameides said, “The EPA has promised action on coal ash since the waning days of the Clinton presidency, but instead we get one delay after another, while research study after research study adds to the body of evidence showing the harmful effects coal ash has on the environment.”

Coal ash is produced when coal is burned. On average, 61 million metric tons are produced in the USA each year, of which 70-80% goes to landfill, with the rest being used for construction. It contains over a dozen heavy metals, including arsenic, mercury and lead, many of which are toxic.

It has been a matter of controversy for the EPA whether or not they should classify coal ash as hazardous waste, when doing so would impact heavily on the coal ash recycling industry. Last month, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed a bill aimed at preventing the EPA from classifying it as hazardous.

He continued, “Working with Congress to reform the outdated Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) should likewise be a priority for McCarthy. TSCA no longer provides adequate protection from chemical risks in the products we buy. An estimated 80,000 chemicals are circulating in the market these days, but only nine are regulated as hazardous. That can’t be right.

“EPA should also take the plunge and propose carbon dioxide emissions rules for existing power plants. Such rules will force closure or significant refits for the nation’s dirtiest and least-efficient plants and, ultimately, wean the country off coal-fired power plants without carbon capture and storage capabilities.”

Climate change plan

If McCarthy is nominated, she will find herself under greater pressure than her predecessor to enact such proposals, thanks to Obama’s recently announced Climate Action Plan, in which he stressed the responsibility of the EPA in combatting climate change.

Addressing Georgetown University in June, Obama said, “I’m directing the Environmental Protection Agency to put an end to the limitless dumping of carbon pollution from our power plants, and complete new pollution standards for both new and existing power plants.”

Responding to a memorandum to the EPA released on the same day as this address, the EPA last week released a redrafted proposal of the rules it released last year concerning the emissions of new power stations.

The fact that this redraft, the details of which have not yet been released, arrived way ahead of the schedule set by Obama, suggests that the EPA may be prepared to act with equal haste on his further directive to issue proposed carbon pollution standards for existing power plants by 1 June 2014, which are then to be enacted by June 2015.

Delays

Obama nominated McCarthy to head the agency on 4 March. She has already directed the EPA’s clean air policy for the last four years and built up a reputation as an effective bureaucrat under both parties.

Her appointment has been severely delayed by Republicans who are opposed to what they perceive as the overregulation of the EPA and to Obama’s efforts to combat climate change. The fact that objections tend to be to the EPA itself rather than to McCarthy personally has prompted suggestions that her nomination has been held hostage to politics. Republican attempts to block the debate mean that this has been the longest time that the EPA has been without a leader.

Obama has been criticised by his opponents for waging a ‘war on coal’. Yesterday, Mitch McConnell, a Republican senator from the coal mining state of Kentucky, launched a radio advert in which he claims that “President Obama and his allies view coal as a threat to their liberal ideology and green energy policies cooked up in Washington.”

However, now that the Republican Senator David Vitter has dropped his threat to filibuster her nomination over concerns over the transparency of the EPA, it is looking increasingly likely that the Senate Democrats will be able to get the 60 votes needed to bring the matter to vote.

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