*[Enwl-eng] Obama's Budget Moves Forward on Climate Change Action

[ENWLine]

*President Obama's budget promises action on climate change*

By: Darren Goode and Andrew Restuccia
April 11, 2013 04:45 AM EDT

President Barack Obama's proposed budget would make good on the promise
he laid out in the State of the Union --- that he will act on climate
change if a divided Congress will not.

But the president doesn't end the uncertainty about when the
Environmental Protection Agency will take steps to limit greenhouse gas
emissions from industrial sources like power plants.

And his budget tacitly acknowledges scientists' warnings that it's too
late to head off climate change entirely, instead calling for new
attention on steps to blunt its worst impacts.

"The president recognizes that climate change poses an economic,
security and environmental threat that demands a decisive response," the
budget says, echoing words Obama used shortly after Hurricane Sandy and
the November election.

"Even as we work to reduce the severity of climate change by cutting
carbon pollution, we must also improve our ability to manage the climate
impacts that are already being felt at home and around the world," it
adds. "Preparing for increasingly extreme weather and other unavoidable
consequences of climate change will save lives and help to secure
long-term American prosperity."

Obama talks of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent below
2005 levels by 2020 --- a goal he touted early on in his presidency,
when hopes were bright for both cap-and-trade legislation and a robust
international climate change treaty. Both efforts have since fizzled,
but Obama's budget touts steps his administration has made on its own,
including new fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas emission standards for
cars and light trucks.

His budget highlights an increasingly prominent role for EPA, saying the
agency in 2014 "will continue to implement existing regulations" to
reduce emissions from light-duty and heavy-duty vehicles. The agency
will also collaborate with federal and state agencies and others "to
explore other cost-effective strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

But the budget offers no details on new big-ticket efforts to reduce
emissions, and it backs off any specific mention of EPA's expected
efforts to restrict greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

It calls for doubling energy efficiency by 2030, or more specifically
cutting "in half the energy wasted by America's homes and businesses" by
setting a goal of "doubling the economic output per unit of energy
consumed in the United States by 2030, relative to 2010 levels."

If lawmakers are expected to do anything this Congress at least
indirectly to address climate change, it is mostly limited to bipartisan
and bicameral efforts to improve energy efficiency in buildings, homes
and appliances.

Obama's budget also promotes the first-ever climate adaptation plans by
federal agencies and joint strategies with states to address climate
effects, such as freshwater management.

His budget includes $200 million in community investments for "enhanced
resilience to extreme weather" and other climate impacts in local planning.

It also "supports efforts to make information about the Earth that is
collected in several federal agencies consistent and more usable" and
funds efforts by NOAA to "help communities prepare for and respond to
coastal storms, sea level rise, drought" and other climate impacts. The
latter measure builds on supplemental funding given to East Coast areas
hit by Sandy.

The budget gives a shout-out to ongoing international climate talks,
including the commitment the U.S. and other nations made in Copenhagen
in December 2009 to reduce their emissions and help poor nations
mitigate the impact of climate change.

The administration also proposes $909 million in 2014 in the State
Department budget "to promote efforts to combat the drivers of climate
change by supporting clean energy, reducing deforestation and enhancing
low-emission, climate-resilient development."

NASA's budget also includes more than $1.8 billion to "revamp the
Landsat program, develop climate sensors for the Joint Polar Satellite
System and conduct numerous other satellite and research efforts."

Erica Martinson contributed to this report.

© 2013 POLITICO LLC




http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/obama-budget-2014-energy-details-89912.html


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Subject: News: Obama's Budget Moves Forward on Climate Change Action


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