Obama’s Climate Change Policy ‘Coming Soon’

June 17, 2013 President Obama has reportedly told Democratic Party donors at closed-door fundraisers that he will unveil a new climate change plan in July, with separate actions that could potentially address the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline project and the EPA’s emissions guidelines for new and existing power plants. The White House is still working out the policy proposal, The Hill reports. The EPA in April postponed rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants — proposed more than a year ago — after the power industry objected. The EPA has also been working on guidelines to curb emissions at existing power plants, which will be proposed in the next 18 months, and may be part of the new climate change policy, Bloomberg reports. Green groups and some Democrats have been pushing the Obama administration to set clear limits on coal-fired plants, but the White House and the EPA have not given a timeline for launching such action, The Hill says. Pipeline proponents have warned against combining approval for the pipeline with new climate change guidelines, while environmental activists oppose a climate change policy that allows the pipeline to go ahead while proposing separate emissions curbing guidelines. President Obama has warned he will take executive action if Congress does not pass the climate change law, but the prospects of a Congressional consensus appear remote, The Hill says. In March, manufacturers said they were “very freaked out” by reports of new climate change standards . Earlier this month, some 22 US investment firms with about $240 billion in assets under management signed the Climate Declaration , calling upon federal policymakers to address climate change as an economic opportunity. These financial firms join more than 150 other US businesses, including General Motors , Intel and Nike , and more than 100 ski areas in backing the Ceres-led initiative that asks lawmakers to draft legislation and regulatory initiatives to reduce carbon emissions and incentivize renewable energy development. Taylor Scott International