With the president’s most potent tools to fight climate change stripped by Congress and the courts, the administration will now have to rely on smaller, less powerful actions. The evident death in the Senate of Democrats’ climate change legislation, which was to have been the centerpiece of Mr. Biden’s plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions, comes just weeks after the Supreme Court handed down a decision that sharply limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, the nation’s second-largest source of greenhouse gases. Here are a few of the ways that federal and state leaders might still reduce greenhouse gas emissions:
Regulate cars and trucks
Mr. Biden has directed the EPA and Transportation Department to write a transformative new regulation to rein in tailpipe pollution and accelerate the nation’s transition to electric vehicles.
Control pollution from power plants
While the EPA has been blocked by the Supreme Court from issuing a sweeping, ambitious rule that would shut down power plants fueled by coal and gas, the agency still plans to issue a more modest rule that would compel electric utilities to slightly lower their greenhouse emissions, and possibly to install technology to capture and sequester carbon dioxide pollution.
Focus on methane
In the coming months, the EPA plans to issue tougher new regulations to curb leaks of methane from oil and gas wells, a move that could take a significant slice out of the nation’s overall greenhouse gas pollution.
Rally action at the state level
Absent federal action on climate change, state-level climate policies will play a more important role.
By Coral Davenport. New York Times. July 15, 2022.
