Obama order targets industrial efficiency, emissions
WASHINGTON |
Aug 31 (Reuters Point Carbon) -
President Barack Obama issued an executive order on Thursday that would
increase the number of cogeneration plants in the U.S. by 50 percent by
2020, a move that would boost U.S. industrial energy efficiency and
slash carbon emissions by 150 million tons per year.The order is the administration's latest effort to deploy cleaner and more efficient energy production in the country by working around political resistance to climate change and "green" energy legislation on Capitol Hill.
The measure aims to accelerate investments to help manufacturers expand their use of combined heat and power (CHP) facilities, which generate thermal and generating power in a single process.
The White House said increased investments in the industrial sector, which accounts for over 30 percent of energy consumed in the U.S., would improve its competitiveness, lower energy costs and reduce heat trapping emissions.
"The Federal Government has limited but important authorities to overcome … barriers, and our efforts to support investment in industrial energy efficiency and CHP should involve coordinated engagement with a broad set of stakeholders," the order says.
The U.S. currently has an installed capacity of 82 gigawatts of CHP, with 87 percent of those in manufacturing plants, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Installing the administration's goal of an additional 40 gigawatts would save one Quadrillion Btus of energy and reduce over 150 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, the agency said.
The addition of the new capacity would save energy users $10 billion a year compared to their existing energy sources and would also result in $40-80 billion in new capital investment in manufacturing.
The order directs the Departments of Energy, Commerce, and Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency, in coordination with a number of White House advisory groups, to coordinate their policies to encourage investment in industrial efficiency.
The order also directs the federal agencies to help states to use CHP to achieve their national ambient air quality standards, and provide incentives through their regulations to help boost the technology.
BYPASSING GRIDLOCK
The Obama administration has been unable to get Congress to pass comprehensive energy and climate legislation that would set a price on carbon pollution and stimulate investment in renewable energy and CHP.
The administration has focused instead on devising direct regulations through cabinet agencies to help the U.S. meet the president's goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.
Thursday's executive order came just two days after the White House finalized a rule - developed with U.S. automakers - that would double fuel efficiency standards for automobiles and light trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.
The EPA said the car efficiency standards will be the most effective domestic policy in place to curb greenhouse gas emissions, cutting as much as 6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2025.
Meanwhile, a boom in the production of shale gas has accelerated a shift in the electric sector to natural gas-fired generation away from coal-fired generation.
The shift caused carbon dioxide emissions from energy use in the first quarter of this year to fall their lowest level in the U.S. in 20 years.
"Encouraging investments in CHP offers the opportunity for increasing the efficiency of energy-intensive manufacturing, while simultaneously meeting the need for new electric power generation capacity," said Neal Elliott, associate director at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
"CHP projects will make the most efficient use of our gas resource and the capital investment required to generate electricity from gas."
Isn't this the action that exceeds the Administration's authority by requiring things beyond a specified timeframe, like 5 years?
ReplyDeleteJean
And that matters to Obama why?
ReplyDeleteThe way the administration looks at issues is let's do it if they sue us it will take years to hit the SCOTUS, and we will be gone anyway.
Exactly Right
DeleteAs stated on MW months ago, there is a reason the Senate stalls everything. Directly ordered by Obama, Reid does nothing, least of all pass anything. This gives credulity to "we can't get Congress ... yatta, yatta, and ergo, I must issue EOs."
ReplyDeleteHello.
ReplyDeleteHere goes for the bazillinonth time. If a person is inclined to not like Obama, they are not going to give a shit if congress is openly telling him to fuck off. I'm not going repost my entire rant from the "Are you better off thread", but the outrage of his abuse of power rings a little hollow to me. Again, you guys don't like Obama so you climb on a righteous soap box and wail about the humanity of it all.
ReplyDeleteIndustry will not do things cleaner without being forced to do so. Car makers may respond, somewhat, to consumer demand for more energy efficient vehicles, but producers of energy have no such pressure to face. What am I going to do? Live off the grid if I don't like their pollution? The Republican party denies global warming and, IMO, will refuse to participate in any legislation that could be deemed as somehow supporting the theory of global warming. I get that you have a very bitter complaint against the EPA, but I have two honest questions. The first is, "Should we never ever pass a law again to try and reduce pollution?" the second is, "Should every POTUS just hang their head and walk away when their party controls two of the three houses and the other party refuses, literally refuses, to sign a single piece of legislation that is not 100% to their liking?"
I stand by what I said on the other thread. Democrats and Republicans both have played the game of fuck you and blocked presidents and pushed them into doing things by executive order. It's a sign that WE have broken the system we have that has previously worked. Obama's rule by executive order is no more and no less a flagrant abuse of power then what Boehner, McConnell and Reid are doing.
I gotta ask again... What powers does the president really have? You contend that congress blocks the president from doing what he wants... Is what he wants to do really a power of his in the first place. When you answer the question, remember to calculate in you answer just what the president has the power and funds to do that the congress can't defund. If congress has the power to remove money that he needs to run his internally created 'agencies', what power does he really have.... The constitution says that it isn't as much as presidents what to believe.
DeleteIf you want to be hyper precise, I guess no president has the authority to do anything but be a figure head and receive foreign heads of state for dinner. I'm not aiming this particular statement at you TS, but the hyper precise views of the constitution being flung around make no sense to me. People like Grover Norquist, I believe, as well as Tea Party types, seem to have latched on to this holy vision wherein they believe that if you control congress, then it is your right to control the entire process and no one has the right to circumvent you.
DeleteBut, to stick to your very precise point, you can can read the vague bit about executive power in the constitution and claim whatever you want - which both parties over time have done since the days of George Washington. If what is most important to you is the preciseness, there isn't much else we can discuss. To me, it's kind of like stepping into the middle of a bar fight and smugly telling the combatants that technically, it's against the law to be fighting in a bar.
If you are inclined to believe all bullshit in Washington will stop if we take a very tight view of the constitution that was never observed to begin with, you certainly aren't alone in that view.
DeleteArticle II of the United States Constitution spells out the duties of the President. These duties were carefully balanced with those of the Legislative and Judicial branches by the Founding Fathers, who feared an overreaching government would infringe on the rights of its citizens.
Article II of the U.S. Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president and charges him with the execution of federal law, alongside the responsibility of appointing federal executive, diplomatic, regulatory, and judicial officers, and concluding treaties with foreign powers, with the advice and consent of the Senate. The president is further empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves, and to convene and adjourn either or both houses of Congress under extraordinary circumstances.
The power of the president and the federal government have grown substantially and each modern president, despite possessing no formal legislative powers beyond signing or vetoing congressionally passed bills.
I get it. Good luck guys. Keep demanding that we go back to a time that never existed when the congress, senate and POTUS never violated a single letter of the constitution.
Delete