Podesta Hurrying on Climate Change Before Time Runs Out
by William Bigelow 30 Nov 2014, 12:15 PM PDT
John Podesta, former
chief of staff to Bill Clinton and now a
chief advisor to Barack Obama to implement Obama’s climate
change agenda, is hurrying as fast as
he can to get Obama’s programs in place before he may be summoned to help run Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and
the GOP takes over the Senate.
Podesta, the founder of the Center for American Progress,
has been responsible for the hard push from the Obama Administration in 2014 on
the environmental front: China and the U.S. agreed on massive
cuts to their carbon emissions, the administration secured commitments on
solar power from affordable-housing providers and Wal-Mart, and the “Climate
Action Champions" competition was implemented.
Podesta’s job with Obama is supposed to end at the end of 2014. Thus. he speaks
like a man with no time to lose; he told a crowd in Las Vegas, "We need
all levels of government, we need all levels of the economy pulling together to
reduce emissions, to build resilience, to deploy more clean energy, to invest
in energy efficiency, to build more resilient infrastructure, and to plan for
climate impacts that are already here and ones that we know are on their way.
This is an all-hands-on-deck moment."
In June 2013, Obama asserted that he
was devoted to mandatory carbon-pollution standards on coal-fired power plants,
as well as reducing methane and and urging businesses to build more energy
efficient buildings. To circumvent GOP opposition, Podesta was hired. Dan
Utech, a senior White House climate policy aide, said:
We laid out a lot in June of 2013, and John has been driving
everybody ... across the government to make sure that we are executing on that.
I think he said, “Look, the plan is great and that is job No. 1, but let's look
for ways to increase ambition, to do even more anywhere that we can do that.”
And so he really challenged everybody here at the White House who works on
these issues, everybody across the Cabinet that has a part of these issues, to
think about what are additional things we can do, what are ways we can either
do additional policy steps from here or engage with the private sector.
In order to ensure that climate change has remained at or
near the top of the priority list, Podesta has been privy to the
administration’s efforts on problems such as Ebola and ISIS, allowing him to
know when he can insert environmental issues at the top of the list.
The top item on environmental list is currently
carbon-emissions standards for power plants; the June deadline for the EPA to
draft the new law was met Obama’s, but incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell has said he will attempt to crush it. He said he will "to try to
do whatever I can to get the [Environmental Protection Agency] reined
in." New West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito echoed, "We've
been picked as a loser, and I'm not going to stand for it.” McConnell will
attach riders to spending bills to stop the EPA. And the new GOP majority in
the Senate may reverse the recent vote on the Keystone pipeline and pave the
way for its completion.
Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming has said of Podesta, "The
last thing Americans want now is another unaccountable 'czar'
who goes around Congress and the public to push extreme red tape that
destroys more jobs and makes it even harder for our economy to grow."
Podesta was instrumental in the deal between China and the U.S. to cut
emissions of greenhouse gases; the U.S. agreed to cut emissions 26 percent by
2025 compared to 2005 levels. GOP Rep. Fred Upton, who heads the House Energy
and Commerce Committee, snapped, "Just when we are finally getting back on
firmer economic footing, thanks in large part to our game-changing energy boom,
a lame-duck president is working to stack the deck against American jobs, wage
increases, and affordable energy."
Although Podesta succeeded in forwarding the
agenda for implementing tougher mileage standards for trucks, he has failed to
implement a national cap-and-trade program to limit greenhouse-gas emissions or
set in a national "renewable-electricity standard." And the EPA
has failed to set new regulations for methane emissions.
But environmentalists still want Podedsta at the helm as
Environmentalist and Democratic strategist Glenn Hurowitz stated, "You can
divide the Obama administration's environmental policy-making into BP and AP.
Before Podesta and After Podesta."
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Carol M. Browner
was an administrator for the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the energy czar for the Barack Obama
administration, a director at the Climate
Reality Project, is a director at the Center
for American Progress, and a senior counselor for the Albright Stonebridge Group.
Note: Albert A. Gore Jr.
is the chairman for the Climate Reality
Project.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Climate Reality Project, and the Center for American Progress.
George Soros was
the chairman for the Foundation to
Promote Open Society, a supporter for the Center for American Progress, is the founder & chairman for the
Open Society Foundations, and a co-chair,
national finance council at Ready for
Hillary.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Center for American Progress, and the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
John
D. Podesta is the founder of the Center
for American Progress, and a counselor for the Barack Obama administration.
Melody
C. Barnes was the EVP for the Center
for American Progress, the domestic policy council, director for the Barack Obama administration, is Barack Obama’s golf partner, and a senior
director at the Albright Stonebridge
Group.
Madeleine K.
Albright is the chair for the Albright
Stonebridge Group, and a director at the Center for American Progress.
Albright
Stonebridge Group was a funder for the Center
for American Progress.
Carol M. Browner
is a senior counselor for the Albright
Stonebridge Group., a director
at the Center for American Progress,
was a director at the Climate Reality
Project, the energy czar for the
Barack Obama administration, and an
administrator for the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA).
Lisa P. Jackson
was an administrator for the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and is a director at the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton
Foundation.
