Obama takes steps to reverse Bush climate policies is the headline from Reuters. For one thing, the new President has instructed the EPA to revisit California’s application to institute carbon dioxide limits on motor vehicles sold there. (See California Standards here.) See also this from the “Washington Post” today, including the video of Obama’s announcement in which he said, among other things, “The days of Washington dragging its heels are over.”
He also ordered the Department of Transportation to accelerate the schedule for bringing new fuel-efficient cars into the market, as required by the federal energy bill from December 2007.
The “WaPo” also reported that “Separately, the State Department is expected to name Todd Stern, formerly a senior official in the Clinton administration, as the new U.S. envoy on climate change. Here is the introduction by Sec. of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and remarks from Stern – text and video.
Stern is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and, as such, has been instrumental in developing policy recommendations that the new administration has been embracing. At the core of this is the transformation to a low-carbon economy with all the potential for jobs and development that that can mean. See Capturing the Energy Opportunity: Creating a Low-Carbon Economy from the CAP.
Opportunity continues to be one of my favorite words.
Here’s CAP’s video on their plan.
