Surprise: Obama’s Science Advisers Press For Carbon Standards

Photo Credit: Allison Harger

President Obama’s outside team of scientific advisers is recommending the creation of carbon emissions standards for existing pollution sources and continued expansion of shale gas production in order to confront global warming.

Those are two of the wide-ranging climate policy suggestions that the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) unveiled Friday that address ways to curb emissions and adapt to inevitable climatic changes.

Others include creation of a “National Commission on Climate Preparedness,” infrastructure planning that integrates climate risks, and various steps to “decarbonize” the economy.

“Mitigation is needed to avoid a degree of climate change that would be unmanageable despite efforts to adapt. Adaptation is needed because the climate is already changing and some further change is inevitable regardless of what is done to reduce its pace and magnitude,” PCAST said in a letter to Obama released Friday.
The advisers note that broad policies to impose a cost on carbon emissions, such as a carbon tax or cap-and-trade, don’t have political traction. But other options to address emissions are available.

Their letter to Obama urges “new performance standards for CO2 emissions from existing stationary sources.” The endorsement arrives as environmentalists are pressing the administration to begin setting standards for the current fleet of coal-fired power plants.

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