Obama climate change plan affects 2016 race

WASHINGTON — Combating climate change will protect the nation's economy, security, and health, President Obama said Monday in unveiling a plan designed to reduce power plant emissions and fated to be a major 2016 campaign issue.

"This is our moment to get this right and leave something better for our kids," Obama said during a White House ceremony to formally unveil what he called his "Clean Power Plan."

The plan, a major plank in Obama's overall climate change agenda, immediately became a fault line in the emerging fight to succeed him as president.

Democratic presidential candidates praised the plan as a good way to confront the challenges of climate challenge; Republicans cast it as over-regulation that will reduce jobs and inflate utility bills, and vowed to change it if elected.

In his speech, Obama said that "no challenge poses a greater threat to our future" than climate change that is heating the atmosphere to record levels, and the nation may not be able to reverse the trend if it doesn't act soon.

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"There is such a thing as being too late when it comes to climate change," Obama said, blaming it for stronger storms, deeper droughts, and longer-lasting wildfire seasons.

Levels of carbon dioxide are the highest they have been in 800,000 years, Obama said, causing more cases of asthma and other diseases — especially among children — and threatening the nation's security. There are restrictions on other toxic chemicals, Obama said, but "there have never been federal limits on the amount of carbon that power plants can dump into the air."

While Obama laid out a stark vision of what could happen if no actions are taken, the next president will have a say on how — and if — Obama's proposed emission reductions are enforced.

New requirements — including the major one that carbon emissions be reduced 32% by the year 2030, relative to 2005 levels — kick in after Obama leaves office on Jan. 20, 2017, less than a year-and-a-half away.

The Clean Power Plan will also be the subject of lawsuits from energy interests who say the government is exceeding its authority with an ill-conceived "war on coal."

In praising the president's plan, Hillary Clinton — front-runner for the Democratic nomination in 2016 — said it "drives investments in clean energy and energy efficiency, reduces asthma attacks and premature deaths, and promotes a healthier environment and a stronger economy."

It is a "floor, not the ceiling," Clinton said, vowing to go further with pollution restrictions and other climate change projects if she is elected.

The plan will also need defending, Clinton said, because "Republican doubters and defeatists" don't want to offer "any credible solution" to the challenges of climate change.

Another candidate seeking the Democratic nomination, independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, said the plan sounds "like a step forward in ending our dependence on fossil fuel, and I support that effort."

Republican presidential candidates are indeed taking aim at the president's power plant proposals, calling them an overreach that will have bad side effects.

"The rule runs over state governments, will throw countless people out of work, and increases everyone's energy prices," said former Florida governor Jeb Bush.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said Obama should call his project the "Costly Power Plan,"  saying "it will cost hard-working Americans jobs and raise their energy rates." Walker, like other GOP candidates, vowed to stop it if elected.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio questioned the value of any global climate change agreement, saying that China, India, and other developing nations "are going to continue to burn anything they can get their hands on."

Another GOP candidate, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, said he doubts the courts will uphold the Obama energy regulations. Describing the plan, Kasich said that "my understanding is they don't like coal, they don't like natural gas; I don't know what they like."

Congressional Republicans also criticized the plan, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., noted that GOP lawmakers are moving to block the new regulations. Rather than work with Congress on "energy diversification," McConnell said, "this White House seems to want good politics, not good policy."

The plan arrives as the Obama administration ponders another major environmental decision: Whether or not to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring oil from the tar sands of Canada to the Gulf Coast.

Environmentalists oppose the project, say the nation should wean itself from dirty fossil fuels; energy companies — and the Republican presidential candidates — generally support the pipeline as a jobs and energy generator.

While complimentary of the new power plant plan, some environmental groups called on Obama — and presumably his successor — to go further. Some said the plan is at odds with other Obama policies, including permits to allow oil drilling in parts of the Arctic wilderness.

Obama plans to promote his climate change agenda at a series of high-profile events in the coming weeks, including a summit in Nevada and a first-ever presidential visit to the Alaskan Arctic. The president will also discuss climate change with Pope Francis when he visits the White House next month.

Later this year, delegates from the United States and other countries gather in Paris to discuss a global climate change agreement, another potential issue in next year's presidential election.

The National Mining Association, an opponent of the new power plant plan, called on the EPA to hold off on the new rules "have the opportunity to determine the lawfulness of the agency's attempt to commandeer the nation's electric grid."

Pledging to file suit one way or another, mining association president Hal Quinn said the plan "reflects political expediency, not reality for supplying the nation with low cost reliable power."

Administration officials said states will be given flexibility to comply with the new rules, and can adapt them to their unique circumstances.

Obama disputed critics who say the plan will cut jobs and "cynics who say it cannot be done." They are parroting "special interests and their allies in Congress" who have always opposed any reasonable regulations on industry, he said.

"We've heard the same stale arguments before," Obama said. "Every time America has made progress, it's been despite these kinds of claims.

Contributing: Chrissie Thompson

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