Recommendations for Executive Action on Climate Change
MEMORANDUM
TO: President Barack Obama
FROM:
DATE: April 12, 2012
RE: Recommendations for Executive Action on Climate Change
Introduction and Summary
Chapter One of the National Research Council’s report, entitled America’s Climate
Choices, begins with the following: “The United States lacks an overarching national strategy to respond to climate change.”1 The report recommends that the U.S. address this policy problem (in essence, a problem of omission) in part through a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.2 The U.S. is theoretically already moving toward this goal. In the wake of the 2009 Copenhagen Accord, the administration set the target of a 17 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2020.3 Yet
Congressional action (e.g., a cap-and-trade system, carbon tax) is just as unlikely in the future 113th Congress as in the current incarnation. Given this Congressional recalcitrance, this memo will serve to outline options that the administration can enact via its executive authority to meet the nation’s reduction commitments.
Possible executive actions include encouraging the Environmental Protection Agency to enact further regulations regarding greenhouse gas emitters, the use of the General
1
National Research Council. America's Climate Choices . Washington, DC: The National Academies
Press, 2011: p. 7. http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12781
2
America’s Climate Choices. Summary p. 2
3
America’s Climate Choices. p. 11-12
1
Services Administration to purchase a “green” vehicle fleet, and using existing climate treaties and laws to diminish greenhouse gas emissions. The administration will ideally begin to implement these recommendations during the first six months of 2013 – thus taking advantage of its renewed political mandate in the wake of the November 2012 presidential re-election. While ultimately the administration should explore all three options, the third alternative – using extant international agreements and
TO: President Barack Obama
FROM:
DATE: April 12, 2012
RE: Recommendations for Executive Action on Climate Change
Introduction and Summary
Chapter One of the National Research Council’s report, entitled America’s Climate
Choices, begins with the following: “The United States lacks an overarching national strategy to respond to climate change.”1 The report recommends that the U.S. address this policy problem (in essence, a problem of omission) in part through a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.2 The U.S. is theoretically already moving toward this goal. In the wake of the 2009 Copenhagen Accord, the administration set the target of a 17 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2020.3 Yet
Congressional action (e.g., a cap-and-trade system, carbon tax) is just as unlikely in the future 113th Congress as in the current incarnation. Given this Congressional recalcitrance, this memo will serve to outline options that the administration can enact via its executive authority to meet the nation’s reduction commitments.
Possible executive actions include encouraging the Environmental Protection Agency to enact further regulations regarding greenhouse gas emitters, the use of the General
1
National Research Council. America's Climate Choices . Washington, DC: The National Academies
Press, 2011: p. 7. http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12781
2
America’s Climate Choices. Summary p. 2
3
America’s Climate Choices. p. 11-12
1
Services Administration to purchase a “green” vehicle fleet, and using existing climate treaties and laws to diminish greenhouse gas emissions. The administration will ideally begin to implement these recommendations during the first six months of 2013 – thus taking advantage of its renewed political mandate in the wake of the November 2012 presidential re-election. While ultimately the administration should explore all three options, the third alternative – using extant international agreements and