Might Carbon Regulation by EPA be on the Horizon
Posted April 5, 2010 at 9:01 pm 
Filed in: Last week President Obama announced that gas development while he will not open up the Pacific Coast and some areas off of Alaska to drilling, he would move forward in some areas in the Atlantic and the southwest corner of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, 135 miles off the coast of Florida, if Congress lifts the existing ban in drilling there.
The month before, the President announced that he was expanding the loan guarantee program for nuclear plants, and announced the awarding of the first loan guarantee to the developers of the Vogtle nuclear plant in Georgia.
One might reasonably ask, what in the world is going on. Why has the President adopted policies that might appear to be more strongly supported by Republicans than Democrats?
Many observers are suggesting that he is laying the groundwork for a Congressional compromise necessary to gain support for climate change legislation. Here. Here. Here.
However, let’s consider another possibility.
In negotiations, it is typically bad form to give away something for nothing. If, therefore, the President plans on negotiating climate change legislation, why would he be giving away Republican “wants” before the negotiations even begin?
Perhaps he is not planning a negotiation over climate change legislation.
Nearly anything can get thrown into legislation. Just two weeks ago we saw student loan reform get thrown into health care reform at the last minute. So an energy bill can address climate, nuclear, drilling, renewables, fuel efficiency and virtually anything else.
In contrast, regulations are by design of narrower focus, generally limited to carrying out a narrow legislative mandate. If EPA regulates carbon, it will do that as part of a relatively narrow regulation that will not touch on many other energy issues, such as nuclear power or drilling.
Perhaps, rather than laying the ground work for legislation, he is laying the groundwork for carbon regulation by regulation instead of legislation. It that is his intended path, he could say we took the ideas that Republicans promoted that made sense, but they had no intent in working with us and rather than wasting valuable time, we decided to move ahead.
Therefore, we might consider the possibility that carbon regulation, not legislation, might be in our future. One signal to look for would be an announcement on coal, anything big. Were he to make offers on nuclear, drilling and coal without getting anything in return it would seem to signal that carbon regulation was nearly inevitable.
Tags: Legislation
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