Obama Shows US Cards Early In Copenhagen Climate Poker

Posted on 08. Dec, 2009 by Ross in Climate Change, Government Policy, North America

For the last couple of months, all the expectation placed on the Copenhagen Conference was that it would fail, despite some nations believing there to be no Plan B. That the USA could commit to nothing because of the stalled legislation in the Senate, and that other countries would feel no need to adopt stringent carbon reduction targets without similar measures levied against the world’s worst polluter.

Indeed, China in particular had been reveling in the reversal of normal international opinion, setting America up as the climate villain.

However, those who had dismissed American efforts against climate change had forgotten that Barak Obama’s administration had already put in place a safety net that could still be used to combat industrial emissions without the approval of Capitol Hill.

Obama hadn’t forgotten, though, and in the opening sessions of the climate conference in Denmark’s capital city the US has gambled by playing their hand early, with the Environmental Protection Agency their top card.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared in April that it deemed carbon dioxide a polluntant. By doing so it would be able to fine companies which emitted too much carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act, circumventing the need for unique legislation to be passed before the government could take action on carbon dioxide levels.

The move sparked a certain amount of panic amongst Republicans and complacent industrialists, who if pushed to have any form of legislation would far rather see either a cap-and-trade scheme or a straight-forward carbon tax. The EPA had intended this: the endangerment finding was designed largely as a stick to use against foot-dragging politicians rather than polluting companies, knowing as it did that actually enforcing fines through the courts was a tricky and expensive business.

The Chamber of Commerce launched an attack on the EPA over their intentions in August, announcing an intention to take the government agency to court in a battle over the science behind climate change. The Chamber’s hope was to convince Senators that there was less need to pass climate legislation as a way of avoiding messy and expensive court battles between the EPA and large corporations, but the move largely backfired. So venomous was the assault against the EPA that several companies left the Chamber, including three major utilities and Apple.

The enemies of the EPA also know that the road against the declaration of carbon dioxide would be a long one, and one that they probably wouldn’t win. That fact was reinforced when shortly after releasing the endangerment finding over carbon dioxide as aa air pollutant, the EPA strengthened their position by saying that they would also be considering controlling carbon dioxide emissions under the Clean Water Act as well.

Carbon dioxide dissolves in water, making it slightly acidic. With rising global atmospheric carbon dioxide, the phenomena of ocean acidification is already starting to have strong effects upon the world’s oceanic ecosystems, and with a large percentage of the world’s population dependant upon fish as a key part of their diets the need to protect fish stocks from ocean acidification is a growing concern.

President Obama needed to show his hand early in order for America to wield any credibility at the talks in Copenhagen, else be dismissed as the world’s climate laggard (although sloth will save us from climate change, apparently). Whether or not there are any aces left up his sleeve, however, is yet to be seen. The world hopes that there is still more to come from the US, but all the indications are that the US is just trying to stave off too much international condemnation and try to keep punching above its moral environmental weight.