Climate Change Legislation U.S.: 2011 and Beyond

For 2010, the U.S. government by most accounts did not do a whole lot to address climate change. A cap and trade system which was meant to deal with the issue failed to garner enough votes to pass the Senate. Since this past November, Republicans have taken over the House, it it likely that next year is going to be very difficult in terms of dealing with climate change at least at the national level. Consequently, for 2011, lawmakers are going to have difficulty pushing any sort of climate change legislation due to the overall political environment, which is quite unfortunate.

However, hope is not necessarily lost in terms of dealing with climate change or regulating carbon dioxide emissions, as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) appears to be stepping up to the plate in Congress's absence. In fact, the EPA has announced that they will "begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions for the first time in January. The rules at first will be mild and will only apply to new or expanding big plants." The fact that the EPA will begin regulating emissions from big power plants is a step forward policy-wise, but it certainly is not as comprehensive or huge as it could be. Therefore, the EPA's announcement is, at best, a modest step when it comes to regulating carbon dioxide emissions. Big power-plants certainly emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, but there are, of course, many other sources not even getting addressed.

The EPA, therefore, is stepping in where Congress is not--regulating greenhouse gas emissions on a national scale rather than in a piecemeal fashion by leaving it up to states to decide how to regulate such emissions. Another significant development is that states are not going to be able to ignore the regulation of emissions from big power plants given that "The EPA also declared last week it would take over the issuance of greenhouse gas permits for big plants in one state, Texas, that has made clear its unwillingness to carry out the regulations." As a result, the EPA's announcement is a positive step forward for the regulation of and it is great that they are willing to take whatever actions necessary to enforce their new rules.

In summary, the EPA is effectively instituting a command and control like system to make states regulate emissions from power plants.  That may not be ideal from an equity standpoint given that each state has disparate energy needs, but in the absence of climate change legislation from Congress this past year and likely 2011, there is no other choice left when it comes to regulating carbon dioxide emissions.  Thus, the EPA is simply exercising its authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions given that Congress lacks the will-power to do so.

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