If you're not reading Brad Plumer or following him on Twitter, I'm going to ask you to do something that someone in the media business would never, ever do. Stop reading this post right now and look him up. That said, Brad's post today about the battle for supremacy between coal and natural gas is excellent. Basically, because of higher than normal natural gas demanded this past winter, prices have risen. This has caused coal to regain some ground on the suddenly incredibly cheap gas. As such, coal generation has increased.
That said, the U.S. is still terribly short of meeting its Copenhagen Accord target in 2020. And it appears that any sort of carbon tax or cap and trade, at least at the national level, is completely out of the question.
But if President Obama wants to tackle climate change, he might just have all the power he already needs in the EPA. If they can label carbon dioxide as a pollutant, they can regulate its emissions. This could have huge ramifications for America's greenhouse gas emissions. Why can't he do it right now? Partly it would really hurt the spirit of bipartisanship that is making Washington such a wonderful place to work.
Also, the courts. But that could change.
Jonathan Chait of New York Magazine discussed the impediments of the carbon pollutant label and what President Obama is doing to change the courts. Essentially, the case would be heard by the Washington, D.C. court of appeals. Right now the court leans conservative but there are also three vacancies on the court.
Three. Of eleven.
Read Chait's article. If President Obama gets his way, and it certainly seems like he could if Harry Reid doesn't back out again we could actually see some movement on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
References:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/28/coal-is-making-a-comeback-in-2013/
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/obama-to-senate-obstruct-this.html