Burned Republicans

Kurt Stenger on Obama’s CO2 laws for new coal-fired power plants.

Climate objectives are a noble issue: They are easily set, but when it comes to their execution, nearly insurmountable hurdles turn up. That’s how it is with the German energy transition, and even more so with the American one. As President Barack Obama has explained: If things go according to plan, by 2030 his country will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by half. But, at the same time, it doesn’t seem to bother him if coal mining and natural gas industries are booming through the support of controversial methods such as fracking.

But Obama’s main problem is political. There is massive opposition from the powerful lobby of the oil and coal companies, from climate change skeptics who think the scientific fact of global warming is a conspiracy and from people who are generally opposed to state regulations. Their fighting arm is made up of Republicans who, as in the current budget dispute, are trying to thwart every reasonable solution. While the ultraconservatives accept a temporary insolvency, they couldn’t care less about energy questions concerning a climate catastrophe: Coal-fired power plants should be allowed to continue to emit insane amounts of CO2. If the president now pursues a regulation over the environmental authorities, it may very well be a clever stroke against burned Republicans. In order to put in place a long-term, stable climate policy, much more would be needed — a societal consensus.