A Serious Response to Greenhouse Gas Emissions

From the Times summary of the President's climate change initiative, which he plans to announce today:

The Obama administration on Monday will announce one of the strongest actions ever taken by the United States government to fight climate change, a proposed Environmental Protection Agency regulation to cut carbon pollution from the nation’s power plants 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, according to people briefed on the plan who spoke anonymously because they had been asked not to reveal details. The regulation takes aim at the largest source of carbon pollution in the United States, the nation’s more than 600 coal-fired power plants. If it withstands an expected onslaught of legal and legislative attacks, experts say that it could close hundreds of the plants and also lead, over the course of decades, to systemic changes in the American electricity industry, including transformations in how power is generated and used. . . .

Under the rule, states will be given a wide menu of policy options to achieve the pollution cuts. Rather than immediately shutting down coal plants, states would be allowed to reduce emissions by making changes across their electricity systems — by installing new wind and solar generation or energy-efficiency technology, and by starting or joining state and regional “cap and trade” programs, in which states agree to cap carbon pollution and buy and sell permits to pollute.

This, folks, is the big deal; compared to this the Keystone Pipeline is a footnote in tiny print. To get this we should accept a hundred Keystone Pipelines, if that is what Republicans want in exchange.  This would be the most important environmental action since the 1970s, and I think it is a vital step toward a sustainable future.

You don't have to accept the details of all those climate models -- I don't. But we are conducting a gigantic experiment with the only atmosphere we have, and there is a good chance the outcome will be catastrophic. Why would we want to run that risk? The basic science showing that carbon dioxide in the air warms the planet is irrefutable. How much, where, and with what other effects is hard to figure out, but most models show rising seas, more and bigger storms, expanding deserts, and acidified oceans. The fossil fuel industry has spent billions attacking those models but their scientists have only been able to nibble around the edges of the predictions. The basic science stands.

We can take actions like this now, or wait around and see what happens when the CO2 concentration rises to levels not seen in 50 million years. The choice is ours to make.