Macroscope | Fighting global warming hamstrung by under-investment in R&D

In early August President Barack Obama surprised his supporters and enraged the opposition by announcing tougher benchmarks for reducing greenhouse gases from electricity generation plants. The Clean Power Plan directs states to cut emissions by about one-third from 2005 levels by 2030.

Instant push-back from fossil fuel interests was predictable. So too was the hostile reaction from denizens of the political right, a number of whom have declared any suggestion of human responsibility for increasing average global temperatures mythical.

Some states will seek to fulfill the prescribed target, despite entreaties from certain Republican quarters to ignore the directive. At least 15 states will pursue legal action to derail President Obama’s initiative.

The legal basis for the action and its immunization from political tampering could both be more robust. The Federal Government has never approved legislation to combat carbon emissions, so what action there has been is the result of state-level decisions or executive action.

The current initiative is the work of the Environmental Protection Agency and it relies on an interpretation by the Supreme Court of a provision in the Clean Air Act that declares carbon dioxide a pollutant. Executive action by the EPA could be reversed by a future administration.

No Republican candidate for the presidency has dared to support the latest EPA activism on power generation, and several have already articulated their unqualified opposition. Yet the public may be on the side of more action to address climate change.