\nLater this morning, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy will present new draft rules for how much carbon dioxide power plants are to be allowed to spew into the atmosphere. The proposal is considered historic, especially by those who had to sift the 2.5 million or so public comments on the previous draft of these rules. In one respect, it is: This will mark the first time the U.S. has treated carbon dioxide\u2014 the leading greenhouse gas that is warming the earth\u2019s atmosphere and imperiling life everywhere\u2014 as pollution, full stop. If you\u2019re pumping more than your legal limit of CO
2<\/sub>\u00a0into the sky, well then, you sir, are a criminal.
\nWhy then does the new rule feel kind of anti-climatic? For one thing, today\u2019s rules aren\u2019t binding (yet), and they\u2019re not so radically different from the earlier, much-commented-upon ones. The two big updates: Coal burning utilities and those burning natural gas will be held to different standards\u2014which is reasonable, given that natural gas burns far cleaner, in terms of CO2<\/sub>\u2014and today\u2019s rules will apply to plants that are currently under construction or will be built in the future. This isn\u2019t about policing the dirtiest of the dirty. It\u2019s about closing a gate behind the dinosaurs …<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Towards the end, Brad hits the nail on the head:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
With the advent of fracking, natural gas is proving so abundant that it\u2019s doing far more than any EPA regs to reduce reliance on coal.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
===<\/div>\n
To learn more, read my forthcoming (Nov) book from Oxford University Press, “Hydrofracking: What Everyone Needs to Know”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My friend Brad Weiners has a written a good piece in Bloomberg BusinessWeek about carbon regulation, coal, and – yes – hydrofracking: Obama’s Climate Plan Calls for Making Excess Carbon a Crime\u2014Eventually By\u00a0Brad Wieners\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0September 20, 2013 https:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/articles\/2013-09-20\/obamas-climate-plan-calls-for-making-excess-carbon-a-crime-eventually Photograph by George Frey\/Bloomberg Later this morning, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy will present new draft…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>Photograph by George Frey\/Bloomberg\n<\/div>\n