Real Leaders ... Lead.
Postponing critical decisions is not Leadership.
Two Key Climate Decisions Facing President Obama: Keystone XL & power plant greenhouse gas pollution standards
Jake Schmidt’s Blog, Natural Resources Defense Council -- November 4, 2011
Decision Two:
POWER PLANT CARBON POLLUTION STANDARDS
The decision on carbon pollution from power plants is long overdue and the Supreme Court has twice confirmed EPA’s authority to issue such rules. It is essential that President Obama complete these standards as soon as possible in 2012. Power plants are the nation’s largest source of dangerous carbon pollution. Today, 40 years after passage of the Clean Air Act, they are still free to dump unlimited amounts of that pollution into the air. In settlement of litigation and in representations to the Supreme Court, the Obama Administration has committed to address power plants’ enormous contribution to the air pollution that drives climate change. The Clean Air Act requires that President Obama establish legally enforceable standards that significantly reduce carbon emissions from both new and existing power plants.
Each year power plants in the US pump more than two billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air -- equivalent to one-third of all U.S. global warming pollution. President Obama has proposed to Congress a Clean Energy Standard that would cut power plant carbon pollution substantially but Congress has not acted. But President Obama has the power to clean up and modernize the power sector under the Clean Air Act even if Congress refuses to do what needs to be done to bring this industry into the 21st Century. [...]
[emphasis and links from source]
What is stopping such Executive action, except the Executive ...
Environmentalist icon to play hardball with Obama
by Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY Nov 05, 2011
Decision One:
On Sunday, John Adams [who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom], the founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council, will be playing hardball with Obama. [He ...] will lead a protest outside the White House that is expected to draw thousands of activists opposed to a plan to build the controversial Keystone XL pipeline across the heart of America.
[...]
Environmentalists -- who were inspired by Obama's calls in 2008 to reduce oil dependence and increase green energy investment -- are disappointed that the State Department ruled in August that a plan to build the pipeline would not cause significant environmental damage. And activists have also expressed frustration that the White House has blocked or delayed several clean air and water regulations in recent weeks.
[...]
Earlier this week, Obama said in an interview with an Omaha television station that he would make the final decision on whether to grant a permit for the Keystone project. Obama's statement has given Adams and other environmentalists a bolt of hope that Obama will ultimately side with them and scrap the project, or at least call for additional study.
[emphasis by poster]
There is a LOT at stake, as President Obama well knows:
Scholastic News Kid Reporters Interview the President (3/7):
Challenges Facing America's Youth
http://youtu.be/...
The thing he gets wrong there, in that little pep talk, is that the Environment is NOT only a problem a Challenge for the Next Generation.
It is a very serious problem NOW! It is a Challenge for This Generation.
Unprecedented Rise in CO2 in 2010, Beyond IPCC's Worst Case
by FishOutofWater for Climate Hawks, DailyKos -- Nov 04, 2011
CO2 emissions increased a staggering 6% in 2010, a record rate of increase far beyond the IPCC's worst case scenarios, the U.S. Department of Energy reported yesterday. Rapid economic growth fueled by coal in China and India and economic recovery in the U.S. spurred the unprecedented amount of increase in greenhouse gas emissions. [...]
That CO2 Level is NOT getting any closer to 350, the survivable level -- especially if we stay on the "drill-baby-drill" carbon course were on. (What is the definition of Insanity again?)
co2now.org
388.92 ppm -- Atmospheric CO2 for October 2011
Preliminary data released November 4, 2011
(Mauna Loa Observatory: Scripps Institution of Oceanography)
The concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere are increasing at an accelerating rate from decade to decade. The latest atmospheric CO2 data is consistent with a continuation of this long-standing trend.
Status Quo Big Oil solutions ... are really NO Solutions at at all.
We need real action, and a real change of course now.
The Next Generation is depending on it. So are current Generations.
Real Leaders ... Lead.
Postponing critical decisions is not Leadership. It is instead simply letting everyone down.