Obama pushes past Congress on environmental regs
By: Susan Ferrechio
Chief Congressional Correspondent
May 20, 2009
 |
| Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has built a coalition of support by agreeing to initially give away 85 percent of the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of pollution permits. (AP photo) |
President Barack Obama’s imposition of tougher auto emission rules and fuel economy standards sends a strong signal to Congress that he won’t wait for the legislative branch to finish quarreling over global warming fees.
“He is using the [Environmental Protection Agency] regulations to force along Congress,” said Ben Lieberman, senior policy analyst on the energy and environment at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
Obama’s crackdown on tailpipe emissions requires automakers’ fleets to have an average fuel efficiency of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. It’s the first federal regulation to control miles per gallon and emissions.
The move comes a month after the EPA ruled that carbon dioxide emissions are a public health hazard because of global warming.
With the Transportation Department implementing the new vehicle rules, Obama will now have the power to control carbon emissions and force cars to be more eco-friendly.
Congress, meanwhile, is struggling to produce a bill that would begin charging for the right to emit carbon dioxide.
While the Congress may move such legislation in the coming weeks, it may never pass the Senate, where Democrats have a much slimmer majority and many of their own moderates are staunchly opposed to cap and trade.
Lawmakers are aware of poll numbers that show Americans are far more concerned about the economy, jobs and even terrorism than they are about climate change and are not enthusiastic about regulations curbing global warming if it is going to cost them.
A Pew Research Center poll earlier this year put global warming dead last on a list of 20 concerns, and a March Gallup Poll on global warming found that 41 percent of Americans now think the threat is exaggerated.
Republicans are refusing to back the House energy bill, and some Democrats are sheepish for fear of job losses and increased
energy costs.
The bill’s author, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has built a fragile coalition of support by agreeing to initially give away 85 percent of the potentially hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of pollution permits, but there is no such agreement in the Senate.
“I think they have an uphill battle this year,” Lieberman said. “It would be very difficult, the idea of passing a bill that would hurt the economy in a recession.”
Nonetheless, Obama has put Congress on notice that he will address global warming, with or without it.
“The president has the administrative ability to take big chunks out of our global warming solution, and it is good that he has begun to do that, whether or not Congress passes global warming legislation,” Dan Becker, director of the environmental group Safe Climate Campaign, told The Examiner.
“Given the fact that we do not know whether Congress will end up passing climate change legislation or how strong that legislation will be, it’s very important that the administration use the existing authority that it has to do what it is doing today.”
