Reactions to EPA’s Power Plant Regulations

In the week since Gina McCarthy approved the EPA’s Clean Power Plan draft regulations on state-level carbon emissions, seas of ink and gigabytes of pixels have been spilt in response and commentary. Even though I mention just a couple, this post has passed 700 words, so I’m hardly being laconic.

Glass Half Empty

“Doomed! Doomed, I say! Doomed! Doomed! Doomed!” [As best I can tell, this originated with Private James Frazer in the BBC comedy, “Dad’s Army.” But, this Rugrats YouTube clip is just too good.]

• Ezra Klein at Vox.com sort of initiated the pessimist camp with his “7 reasons America will fail on climate change.” As other writers noted, it’s not that Ezra is wrong or misrepresented the facts, it’s just that everything is cast in the worst possible light. Agree or disagree, it was a catalyst for further discussion.My one comment is that the tone is almost narcissistic (maybe that’s overstating it, but I can’t think of a better word). It’s all about how the US political system is broken. When he mentions China and other carbon polluters, it’s about how they are in one way subject to our whims and in another way capable of scuttling any substantive progress. The blog title even hints at that with “America will fail.” To cut Ezra some slack, he is the renowned Washington Wonk, so he will write about what he knows best – political dysfunction in the US capital. After a while, that has got to blacken your soul and make you want to kick puppies and pop children’s birthday balloons.

• Brad Plumer specializes in climate change at Vox.com and has multiple posts on the proposed regulations (quick link to all his posts, here). His first opinion piece is “Obama’s climate agenda is incredibly ambitious. It’s also not nearly enough.” Honestly, that title pretty well sums up the article. The US is no longer the largest carbon polluting country and represents a shrinking fraction of the total global emissions. Even significant domestic reductions will have diminishing returns overall.
• Brad has another post on the elephant in the room, “Is China planning to put a cap on its carbon emissions?” The big news following the announcement of the draft regulations was that China might move forward on capping their carbon emissions. Brad rightly busts out a barrel of Morton’s salt on this announcement as the comment came from a “senior advisor to the Chinese government.” What little I know of China, that seems to be about the equivalent of a street preacher in downtown Chicago yelling into a bullhorn. Maybe he gets lots of attention, but the Political Machine is going to do its own thing.

Glass Half Full

“Always look on the bright side of life. [Whistling.]” Monty Python cast, “Life of Brian.”

• Following Ezra’s post, Joe Romm at Climate Progress countered with “7 Reasons America Should Succeed On Climate Change.” Joe basically looks at each of Ezra’s points with a positive spin. Maybe he’s being a bit of a Pollyanna, but he identifies ways to break those very barriers instead of just kvetching about them.
• Jonathan Chait at New York Magazine summarized the range of the liberal commentary in his post, “Has Obama Saved the Earth, or Doomed It?” I’ve linked to several of the same posts, plus he has a couple more. I can’t top his synthesis, so I’ll just quote him:

If you’re not sure whom to believe, the answer is that you should believe them all, because we’re all saying the same thing.

The only real difference in these putatively different assessments is the standard against which Obama is being held. Has Obama done everything within his power to protect future generations against climate change? Yes. Is everything within his power enough? No.

• Finally, Paul Krugman has spent much of early June looking at the situation from his economist viewpoint. If you’re not doing so, just read his blog already. For the joy of ‘link-bait’ though, here are his recent op-ed pieces (2 Jun and 9 Jun 2014) and relevant blog posts (2 Jun, 7 Jun, and 10 Jun 2014). He notes that there will be some costs and job losses, but in the grand scheme of things the negatives are actually quite small, even without considering the positives.

If I can close on a cliché, my feeling is “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”

Edit: 17 Jun 14, corrected spelling of Brad Plumer’s name.

New Carbon Regs coming 2 Jun 2014

Quite a few sites I follow have noted that Obama will make a significant policy announcement on Monday. He is going to propose regulations for existing power plants. These plants are the source of 40% of US’ carbon dioxide emissions, so the regulations could have a dramatic impact on the country’s contribution to climate change. I imagine most major news outlets will provide coverage next week, but there is lots of information already available, if you are interested.

• Scientific American, reprinting Climate Wire, provides a semi-brief primer on the policy (1,300 words).
• Brad Plumer at the new Vox.com has a slightly longer primer (2,000 words). Plus, Vox has their “cards” to provide additional background and further reading sources.
• There probably are shorter summaries out there, but the regulations will be complicated, so it is hard to cover concisely.

Predictably, not many talking heads are waiting to actually see the proposal before pontificating. The Chamber of Commerce has already issued a report saying that it will be the end of the world. Fortunately, this report has quickly been countered by two of my favorite writers, Jonathan Chait and Paul Krugman:

• Chait at the New Yorker points out some of the questionable assumptions in the report.
• Krugman at the New York Times highlights how the big scary numbers the Chamber tosses about are not really scary at all.

Long story short, the Chamber’s numbers are probably over-estimating the real cost. Further, even using the worst numbers, the US economy can easily cope and adjust. I’ve said it before, but the technical hurdles are solvable. There will be costs, but those are manageable as well. It is the drive and desire to overcome the status quo bias that is the only real problem.

Edit: 17 Jun 14, corrected spelling of Brad Plumer’s name.