오바마, 기후변화와 전면전… “2030년 탄소배출 32% 감축”

오바마, 기후변화와 전면전… “2030년 탄소배출 32% 감축”

신석호 특파원 입력 2015-08-04 03:00:00 수정 2015-08-04 03:00:00

美 화력발전 강력 규제안 발표 

2014년 6월보다 목표치 2%P 높여… 청정에너지 비율은 22%→28% 

공화당-석탄의존도 높은 주들 반발

임기를 18개월 남긴 가운데 건강보험개혁(오바마케어), 이란 핵협상, 쿠바 국교정상화 등 국내외 정책들에서 승승장구하고 있는 버락 오바마 미국 대통령이 ‘기후변화와의 전쟁’을 선포했다.

오바마 대통령은 3일 미국 50개 주가 15년 뒤인 2030년까지 석탄·화력 발전을 통한 온실가스 배출량을 대폭 줄이고 태양광과 풍력을 이용한 청정에너지를 활용한 전기 공급을 늘리는 ‘청정전력 계획(Clean Power Plan)’을 공식 발표했다.

이날 발표된 최종 계획안은 지난해 6월 공개된 초안보다 한층 강화된 것으로 ‘미국 역사상 가장 강력한 조치’가 될 것이라고 백악관 관리들이 밝혔다. 2030년까지 미국 내 발전소의 탄소 배출량 감축 목표(2005년 배출량 대비)는 당초 30%에서 32%로 높아졌다. 풍력이나 태양광과 같은 재생 가능 에너지를 통한 발전 비중 목표치는 당초 22%에서 28%로 대폭 상승했다. 미국인들이 부담할 전기료는 연간 85달러(약 9만9000원) 줄어들 것이라고 백악관이 설명했다.

오바마 대통령은 전날 트위터로 공개한 영상에서 “기후변화는 이제 다음 세대의 문제가 아니다”라면서 “새로운 규칙은 우리가 기후변화와 싸우기 위해 지금까지 취한 조치들 중 가장 크고 중요한 걸음이 될 것”이라고 강조했다. 

이번 계획에 따라 각 주는 발전소 탄소 배출량 감축 계획을 2018년까지 미 환경보호청(EPA)에 제출해야 한다. 탄소 배출의 주범이자 현재 미국 내 발전량의 40%가량을 차지하는 석탄 화력발전소를 줄이는 대신 태양광과 풍력 등 청정에너지 발전에 투자하는 주에는 연방정부가 각종 인센티브를 제공토록 했다. 탄소 배출 한도를 채운 주와 남긴 주가 배출권을 사고파는 탄소배출권 거래제도도 도입된다.

공화당과 석탄 의존도가 높은 상당수 주에서 이번 규제안에 강하게 반발하고 있어 무사히 미 의회의 문턱을 통과할 수 있을지 장담하기 어렵다.

미치 매코널 공화당 상원 원내대표(켄터키)는 올해 초 50개 주에 오바마 대통령의 구상을 무시하라는 서한을 보내기도 했다. 뉴욕타임스는 2일 “오바마 대통령의 탄소 배출 규제가 2016년 대선전에 중요한 이슈로 부상할 것”이라고 전망했다.

하지만 매코널 대표의 지역구이자 석탄 산업 비중이 높은 켄터키 주도 지난해 초안 발표 이후 화력발전 감축을 시작했다고 워싱턴포스트가 올해 7월 보도했다. 탄소 배출 규제를 통한 기후변화 방지가 미국은 물론이고 전 세계의 대세임을 부인할 수 없기 때문이다.

오바마 대통령은 국내외 여론몰이에 나설 예정이다. 24일 민주당의 해리 리드 상원 원내대표(네바다)가 주최하는 ‘국가청정에너지회의’의 기조연설자로 나서고 이어 알래스카 주를 방문해 관련 회의에 참석할 예정이다.

지난해 11월 베이징(北京)에서 시진핑(習近平) 중국 국가주석을 만나 탄소 배출 규제에 대한 양국 공조를 다짐받은 오바마 대통령은 이 문제에 대한 국제 공조에도 나선다. 다음 달 미국을 방문하는 프란치스코 교황과 기후변화에 대한 대화를 나누고 12월 프랑스 파리에서 열리는 유엔 정상회의에서 다른 나라들에 탄소 배출량 감축을 압박할 것으로 전망된다.

http://news.donga.com/Main/3/all/20150803/72854394/1

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WASHINGTON — In the early months of 2014, a group of about 30 corporate lawyers, coal lobbyists and Republican political strategists began meeting regularly in the headquarters of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, often, according to some of the participants, in a conference room overlooking the White House. Their task was to start devising a legal strategy for dismantling the climate change regulations they feared were coming from President Obama.

The group — headed in part by Roger R. Martella Jr., a top environmental official in the George W. Bush administration, and Peter Glazer, a prominent Washington lobbyist — was getting an early start.

 

By the time Mr. Obama announced the regulations at the White House on Monday, the small group that had begun its work at the Chamber of Commerce had expanded into a vast network of lawyers and lobbyists ranging from state capitols to Capitol Hill, aided by Republican governors and congressional leaders. And their plan was to challenge Mr. Obama at every opportunity and take the fight against what, if enacted, would be one of his signature accomplishments to the Supreme Court

Within minutes of the announcement, West Virginia’s attorney general, Patrick Morrisey, stepped before a bank of cameras for a news conference at the Greenbrier resort in his home state. Flanked by Mike Duncan, the president of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, one of the nation’s top coal lobbying groups, and Greg Zoeller, the attorney general of Indiana, Mr. Morrisey announced that a group of at least 15 Republican state attorneys general were preparing to jointly file a legal challenge to Mr. Obama’s proposal.

“The final rule announced Monday blatantly disregards the rule of law and will severely harm West Virginia and the U.S. economy,” Mr. Morrisey said. “This rule represents the most far-reaching energy regulation in this nation’s history, drawn up by radical bureaucrats and based on an obscure, rarely used provision of the Clean Air Act.”

“Our coalition, in short order, will comprise of many states, consumers, mine workers, coal operators, utilities and businesses who are united in opposition to this radical and illegal policy,” he added.

While Mr. Obama had not even put forth a draft proposal of his plans when the group started its work, the president had made plain in several speeches that he intended to act forcefully on climate change — and that he would flex the muscle of his executive authority to do so. “If Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will,” he said in his 2013 State of the Union address. The lawyers and lobbyists wanted to be ready to fire back hard and fast when he did.

 

In devising its strategy, the group worked closely with the office of Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader whose coal-producing home state also stands to suffer under the regulation. While Mr. McConnell opposes the climate change regulations, his advisers knew that he had little chance of enacting legislation to block them in Congress. Instead, Mr. McConnell has taken the unusual step of reaching out directly to governors and attorneys general, urging them to refuse to submit compliance plans for the regulations, and encouraging a state-by-state rejection of the rules.  

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Mr. Morrisey, whose coal-producing home state is also struggling with the nation’s highest unemployment rate, was chosen as the public face of the suit. But key strategists joining the original planning were Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, a former attorney general there, and Scott Pruitt, the attorney general of Oklahoma. Both already had experience suing the Obama administration over major Clean Air Act regulations. 

An important ally in the effort was the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a conservative advocacy group that pushes policy through state legislatures. Typically, the council’s committees of corporate members will craft a model bill designed to push through policies it supports, such as rolling back environmental regulations.

At a July meeting in San Diego, ALEC’s energy committee — which includes Mr. Duncan, the coal lobbyist who also worked closely with Mr. McConnell on his tactics — enacted a model bill designed to directly support state attorneys general who legally challenge the climate change plan. According to a person present at that July meeting, the bill would allow states to create funds, which could be funded by corporate donations, to support legal challenges to the climate change rules.  

While it is not unusual for major corporations to sue the federal government over environmental regulations, people involved in the effort to craft a legal strategy against the climate change rules said the time, labor and coordination of the effort were unusual. That effort reflects the sweeping scope of climate change regulations, which, unless struck down in the Supreme Court, could transform huge sectors of the economy, potentially crippling the coal industry and other industrial sectors whose economic well-being relies on coal.

 

The Obama administration contends that despite the massive scale of the challenges trained against it, the climate change plan is legally sound. “The final rule is built on a rock-solid legal foundation,” said Thomas Reynolds, a spokesman for the agency.

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Master of the Obvious

 37 minutes ago 

This is just Obama trying to create some lasting boondoggle for his green energy cronies before leaving office. If the policy had any merits...

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The scientific community is selling its little slice of death to generate funding.The politicians are exploiting this to generate a cap-and...

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Sound science not politicians should make these decisions. 

 

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“E.P.A. is using its clear authority under the Clean Air Act to set emission standards for air pollutants,” he said. “The rule is wholly consistent with the law, and we are confident it will withstand any and all legal challenges.”

But Michael McKenna, a Republican energy lobbyist who has worked closely with the group, says that the attorneys general will not back down. “This rule was more aggressive than any of us could have imagined,” he said. “There is no lack of state attorneys general who would like to put a bullet in this thing.” The rules, a final, stricter version of a plan that the Environmental Protection Agency announced in 2012 and 2014, assigns each state a target for reducing its carbon pollution from power plants. States will be allowed to create their own plans to meet the requirements and will have to submit initial versions of their plans by 2016 and final versions by 2018.

The most aggressive of the regulations requires that by 2030, the nation’s existing power plants must cut emissions by 32 percent from 2005 levels, which is an increase from the 30 percent target proposed in the draft regulation.

The president on Monday called the new rules a public health imperative and “the single most important step America has ever taken in the fight against global climate change.” He also sought to wrap the policy in the legitimacy of transcendental values, noting that Pope Francis issued an encyclical in June, calling action on the issue a “moral obligation.”

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Even as Mr. Obama acknowledged the steep resistance from coal-producing states and industry critics, he said it was up to the United States to adopt tough standards so that other countries like China would feel compelled to take similar steps.

Even before Mr. Obama began speaking Monday, Mr. McConnell said he would do everything in his power to combat the rules, which he said the president had crafted because he was “tired of having to work with the Congress the people elected.”

“That’s why the administration is now trying to impose these deeply regressive regulations — regulations that may be illegal, that won’t meaningfully impact the global environment, and that are likely to harm middle- and lower-class Americans most — by executive fiat,” Mr. McConnell said. “It represents a triumph of blind ideology over sound policy and honest compassion,” he added.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/04/us/obama-unveils-plan-to-sharply-limit-greenhouse-gas-emissions.html?ref=business&_r=0