{"id":467648,"date":"2010-03-24T17:38:10","date_gmt":"2010-03-24T21:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dirt.asla.org\/?p=4144"},"modified":"2010-03-24T17:38:10","modified_gmt":"2010-03-24T21:38:10","slug":"the-white-house-says-climate-and-energy-legislation-up-next-on-capitol-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/467648","title":{"rendered":"The White House Says Climate and Energy Legislation up Next on Capitol Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nDuring a panel organized by U.S. News & World Report\u00a0<\/a>entitled “Going Green:\u00a0America’s Cities and\u00a0the Role of Government,”\u00a0Carol Browner<\/a>, Director, Office of Energy and Climate Policy, The White House, said now that healthcare has been tackled, President Obama will focus on a comprehensive climate change and energy program.\u00a0A new climate and energy\u00a0plan is critical if the U.S. is to remain competitive in renewable energy.\u00a0Browner said, “There has\u00a0been\u00a0a global clean energy revolution. How are we going to participate?”<\/p>\n

While Waxman-Markey will not pass in the Senate, new legislative proposals are being developed by Senators Kerry, Lieberman and Graham that will involve direct fees or taxes on carbon instead of an economy-wide cap and trade system. The White House has been providing “technical assistance,” and\u00a0the President has also\u00a0visited a number of members on this issue.\u00a0The Obama administration has yet to see the details of the new Kerry \/ Lieberman \/ Graham proposal, but\u00a0Browner thinks we will\u00a0have the “right debate on the right bill” soon.<\/p>\n

Even if you don’t believe climate change is happening, Browner said, there are still reasons to support comprehensive climate and energy legislation. The\u00a0most important\u00a0reason:\u00a0companies need clear market signals\u00a0before they will invest further in green technologies.\u00a0”The U.S. hasn’t put the right policies into place so green companies don’t know if there is a market for their products.” Browner said clear directions on\u00a0renewable energy are desperately needed if the U.S. is to\u00a0maintain parity with\u00a0China and India. “The U.S. figured out how to create solar panels. We should be at the forefront of this global\u00a0market.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is enormous domestic demand for clearer\u00a0regulatory\u00a0standards on\u00a0renewable energy.\u00a0To prove her point, Browner said there were some $2.3 billion in renewable energy recovery grants available, but the administration received more than $5 billion in requests, demonstrating “pent-up demand.” Browner also\u00a0said\u00a0clear regulations are needed to move markets in greener directions.\u00a0The EPA has done this before sucessfully.\u00a0”The EPA set the standards for catalytic converters. Once we did this, there was a race to meet the requirements. One firm that took advantage and won that race is now a global leader for that technology.” In the same way, if rules are set on carbon, firms will find opportunities to innovate and make money.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An agreement on car efficiency standards\u00a0will be finalized this week, meaning that cars will\u00a0need to hit 35 mpg by 2020. The\u00a0new rules\u00a0are expected to help reduce\u00a0GHGs\u00a0released from\u00a0cars.\u00a0Browner cited the key role of the EPA’s endangerment finding. “We needed the endangerment finding to get an agreement. This was a scientific finding, not a regulatory or political decision.”\u00a0The\u00a0recent\u00a0Supreme Court decision\u00a0allowing the\u00a0EPA\u00a0to regulate CO2 emissions from cars if they found they endanger public health laid the foundation for these new\u00a0car rules.<\/p>\n

The decision, Browner said, also enables\u00a0the\u00a0EPA to “move into other areas” of CO2 emissions.\u00a0Through the EPA, “we can take on other emitters beyond cars.” However, Browner argues that comprehensive legislation on Capitol Hill was favorable to EPA movement on regulating all sources of CO2 emissions.<\/p>\n

While others have been critical of\u00a0expensive carbon capture and sequestration schemes, Browner said this\u00a0was a possible solution\u00a0for mitigating the adverse environmental effects of coal-generated power. “Coal is going to be part of our energy mix for a long time. We need to invest in technologies to make coal production cleaner.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

On water, Browner concurred with an audience member who said “energy consumes water and water consumes energy.” She said there are more efficient ways to treat water, namely preventing pollution from going in in the first place. “We spend lots of money polluting water, and then lots more to take out the pollution.”<\/p>\n

In contrast to the critics of the UNFCCC Copenhagen meeting, she thought it was a success because it was the first time India and China have released detailed GHG emission reduction plans. To participate in the next stages of the process, the U.S. “must get its own house in order.” This is not only needed to reach a global agreement, but also to create more domestic jobs. “We need a whole new generation of jobs.”<\/p>\n

Watch a video of Browner’s remarks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Image credit: Inhabitat<\/em><\/p>\n

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During a panel organized by U.S. News & World Report\u00a0entitled “Going Green:\u00a0America’s Cities and\u00a0the Role of Government,”\u00a0Carol Browner, Director, Office of Energy and Climate Policy, The White House, said now that healthcare has been tackled, President Obama will focus on a comprehensive climate change and energy program.\u00a0A new climate and energy\u00a0plan is critical if the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467648\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}