Back in January my very first blog post criticized a Winnipeg Free Press editorial for urging the Harper Government to start regulating carbon dioxide to match the planned actions of the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States. The political tide in that country had turned with the Obama Government receiving a “shellacking” in the November elections. I observed that the bureaucracy could try to take the brave (foolhardy) administrative route and try to regulate c02 (a harmless, benign gas) but that ultimately the Republicans would move to defund these efforts.
This commentary, entitled Barack Obama may be forced to delay US climate action, from Britain’s Guardian newspaper confirms exactly that scenario. Here’s an excerpt:
“Buried among the $61bn in Republican budget cuts are a series of measures that would strip the overall budget of the EPA by 30%.
The cuts are aimed at restricting the EPA’s legal authority and financial capacity to act on climate change, but they would also stop the agency from regulating broader concerns such as mountaintop mining removal and coal ash.
Bob Perciasepe, the deputy head of the EPA, called the cuts “reckless”, and suggested they were motivated by Republicans’ opposition to government regulation.
“They are not concerned so much with fiscal policy but really with disabling part of the EPA’s capacity to do its job,” he told the Georgetown climate conference.
The Republican bill would specifically bar the Obama administration from funding programmes regulating greenhouse gas emissions, or connected to climate science and international negotiations for a deal to end global warming.
It cuts funds for the post of White House climate adviser, Carol Browner, who has announced her resignation, and the State Department climate envoy, Todd Stern. It de-funds the UN climate science body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the UN body for climate talks, the UNFCCC.”
The climate change party is over.
