The president’s post-Paris climate change agenda will focus on countering lawsuits from more than half the nation suing the Obama administration over its emission rules for power plants, says a White House senior adviser.
Brian Deese, Obama’s senior adviser on climate change, outlined the administration’s post-Paris agenda on Wednesday during an event in Washington meant to highlight the agreement among 196 countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions that most scientists blame for driving manmade climate change.
Top of the list is making sure the Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of the president’s climate agenda, survives challenges from 27 states suing the Environmental Protection Agency over its far-reaching rules, while the White House works with states to encourage them to comply, Deese said.
The EPA plan requires states to reduce emissions one-third by 2030. The states suing argue that the plan oversteps the EPA’s authority and is unconstitutional. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to make a decision on whether to stay the regulations as soon as next month.
Deese said the EPA is “four months into the Clean Power Plan being deployed,” with a summer deadline looming for states to submit compliance plans. So, the priority is to work with them to comply with the plan, while at the same time there are the “court challenges that we have to deal with, too.”
Deese spoke at a forum hosted by the New Republic on the aftermath of the Paris climate change agreement. Deese is the latest administration official to make a public appearance this week to tout the president’s victory in ushering in the climate accord, while downplaying that it is non-binding and voluntary.
Deese also hinted that the administration likely will release new greenhouse gas emissions regulations related to methane in the coming months. The regulations likely would be used to bolster its already proposed rules for cutting methane from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, used to produce oil and gas from shale rock formations.
“If we want to get to that goal, we have to do more on the policy side,” Deese said, adding that work on methane is another post-Paris priority in strengthening the nation’s commitments to the deal. It also will seek to implement a host of energy efficiency rules along with conservation efforts.
There is an “international component to this as well,” in leveraging better cooperation with other countries on climate change action, he said. President Obama will spend most of the first half of Wednesday on the phone with the leaders of other countries discussing climate change.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misstated the host of the forum at which Deese spoke. The Washington Examiner regrets the error.
