Obama Administration and Energy Policy Post-Midterm Elections

After President Obama's party, the Democrats, lost control of the House and has a relatively slim lead in the Senate, the question now is:  What does that mean for his future energy policy? After all, the conventional wisdom is that President Obama will now be unable to do much on the climate change front given that his agenda depends at least in part on the Republican Party agreeing with his agenda to do something about climate change. When the Executive branch is controlled by the Democrats--in this case President Obama while one of the branches of Congress --in this case the House is controlled by the Republicans, that is a recipe for overall gridlock where nothing much is likely to get done at least when it comes to any sort of climate legislation.

The evidence from the mid-term elections suggests that President Obama will have an uphill battle to get much of anything done with respect to climate change at least for the next two years.  In particular, President Obama's climate agenda might be kicked further down the road since even though he had a divided Congress before the election, "he can expect fierce opposition to many of the proposals currently being considered. Climate change could also slip further down the agenda, with the budget deficit and healthcare reforms expected to become the main focus for Republicans in Congress." As a result, President Obama's climate agenda will likely take a back-seat to other issues in this country so a climate bill at the Federal level, which is desperately needed to regulate carbon dioxide emissions will inevitably take a back seat to other issues.

If Congress is unable or unwilling to address the climate change issue, the question becomes: Should the EPA step in at the Federal level and fill the void left by Congress? That is an interesting discussion for debate, because after all, if the science is clear that carbon dioxide emissions are man-made and that the U.S. therefore has an obligation to do something about that, then perhaps the regulatory body in charge of overseeing environmental quality in this country--the EPA should step in. The problem with doing that of course is that EPA depends on funding from Congress and their funding might be weakened if they go out of bounds and against the wishes of Congress. Nevertheless, it is worth considering and pursuing for the EPA--to look into how to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, because many states have already filled in the void they have left. It is time to create some sort of consistent policy when it comes to regulating carbon dioxide. Perhaps, that can only happen if the EPA once and for all steps up to regulated carbon dioxide as a pollutant.

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