UPPER
MARLBORO, Md. — President Obama on Tuesday ordered the development of
tough new fuel standards for the nation’s fleet of heavy-duty trucks as
part of what aides say will be an increasingly muscular and unilateral
campaign to tackle climate change through the use of the president’s
executive power.
The
new regulations, to be drafted by the Environmental Protection Agency
and the Transportation Department by March 2015 and completed a year
later so they are in place before Mr. Obama leaves office, are the
latest in a series of actions intended to cut back on greenhouse gases
without the sort of comprehensive legislation the president failed to
push through Congress in his first term.
The
limits on greenhouse gas pollution from trucks would combine with
previous rules requiring passenger cars and light trucks to burn fuel
more efficiently and pending rules to limit the carbon emissions of
power plants. Cumulatively, experts said the à la carte approach should
enable Mr. Obama to meet his target of cutting carbon pollution in the
United States by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. But they said he
would still be far short of his goal of an 80 percent reduction by 2050.
Video|16:17
Michael Reynolds/European Pressphoto Agency
Obama Delivers Remarks on Economy
The president spoke at the Safeway
Distribution Center in Maryland about efforts to bolster the economy and
announced plans for new fuel economy standards for trucks.
“Improving
gas mileage for these trucks is going to drive down our oil imports
even further,” Mr. Obama said at a Safeway grocery distribution center
here, flanked by a Peterbilt truck and Safeway and Coca-Cola cabs. “That
reduces carbon pollution even more, cuts down on businesses’ fuel
costs, which should pay off in lower prices for consumers. So it’s not
just a win-win, it’s a win-win-win. We got three wins.”
Not
everyone sees it that way. United States car and truck manufacturers
have lobbied heavily against aggressive increases in federal fuel
economy standards, saying that they could increase vehicle prices and
diminish safety. More broadly, Republicans have said that the president
should not single-handedly impose what they consider onerous
requirements on vast swaths of the energy economy when Congress has
opted against its own intervention.
The
announcement was part of the president’s vow in his State of the Union
address last month to advance his agenda “with or without Congress.” But
while most of the actions taken since then have been relatively modest,
like ordering a study of job training programs, one area where Mr.
Obama both has the power to take more sweeping action and seems intent
on using it is the environment.
In the case of carbon pollution, Mr. Obama has the legal authority under the 1970 Clean Air Act, which requires the Environmental Protection Agency
to regulate any substance designated as a pollutant that harms or
endangers human health. In 2009, the E.P.A. determined that carbon
dioxide, emitted in large quantities from tailpipes and smokestacks,
meets that definition.
While
Mr. Obama effectively gave up on comprehensive climate legislation
after it stalled in the Senate in his first term, aides said he saw
climate change as an area where he could still shape his legacy. He
recruited John D. Podesta, a former White House chief of staff for
President Bill Clinton, to join his team as counselor in part to direct a
more aggressive approach to the issue.
The
administration has recently sought to elevate the issue. Two weeks ago
officials announced creation of seven regional “climate hubs” to help
farmers adapt to the impact of climate change, like drought and
increased pests. Last week in California’s parched Central Valley,
Mr. Obama announced a $1 billion “climate resiliency” fund for affected
communities. Last weekend while in Jakarta, Secretary of State John
Kerry urged Indonesia to sign a major climate treaty and directed
American diplomatic missions to make climate change a top priority.
These
accompany more assertive actions the administration is taking to
reshape the American energy sector. In August the E.P.A. issued rules
requiring automakers to double average fleet economy standards for
passenger cars to 50.4 miles per gallon by 2025, which the
administration said would cut carbon pollution from vehicles in half.
In
September the E.P.A. proposed new rules cutting carbon pollution from
future coal-fired power plants, a move that has effectively frozen
construction of new coal plants. Mr. Obama has directed the E.P.A. to
produce by June a draft regulation targeting existing coal plants, a
deeply controversial move that could shutter hundreds of facilities.
“They
have to do the actions at home to show the rest of the international
community that they’re doing the actions they need the rest of the world
to do,” said Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, a Washington research organization.
But
environmental advocates warn that the E.P.A. rules will be effective
only if they withstand legal and legislative efforts to undo them, which
is why they want Mr. Obama to be more energetic about selling them to
the public. “If you make a push purely on the executive action front and
you don’t back it up with measures to bolster public support, a lot of
this can crumble under a new administration,” said Michael Levi, a
climate change expert at the Council on Foreign Relations
.
Specialists
like Mr. Levi also note that no matter what the United States does on
its own, it may not matter if Washington fails to persuade other
nations, like China and India, to commit to similar actions, which is
Mr. Kerry’s assignment.
In
his speech here Tuesday, Mr. Obama said that heavy-duty trucks
represent just 4 percent of all vehicles on American highways but
generate 20 percent of the carbon pollution produced by the
transportation sector.
Environmentalists applauded Mr. Obama’s move. Michelle Robinson, director of the clean vehicles program at the Union of Concerned Scientists,
said improving fuel efficiency of heavy-duty trucks could reduce oil
consumption by as much as one million barrels a day in 2035, more than
the capacity of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
A
coalition of shippers that stand to benefit from lower fuel costs,
including FedEx, Wabash National Corporation and Waste Management Inc.,
welcomed the president’s action and released its own suggestions to
shape the administration’s new regulations.
“This
collaborative approach will result in realistic, achievable goals and
an effective regulatory framework to improve fuel efficiency and reduce
greenhouse gas emissions,” said Douglas W. Stotlar, president of Con-way
Inc., the nation’s third-largest freight company and a member of the
coalition.
The
American Trucking Association took a more cautious view, saying that it
had worked with the administration on previous rules. “As we begin this
new round of standards, A.T.A. hopes the administration will set forth a
path that is both based on the best science and research available and
economically achievable,” said Bill Graves, the association’s chief
executive.
Mr.
Obama pointed to what he called an emerging consensus. “If rivals like
PepsiCo and Coca-Cola or U.P.S. and FedEx or AT&T and Verizon, if
they can join together on this, then maybe Democrats and Republicans can
do the same,” he said.
By The New York Times,
No comments:
Post a Comment