Word: epas
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...first African-American head of the EPA. Environmentalism is often thought of as a concern for a narrow, well-off elite. How do you want to change that perception and broaden the green tent...
That's exactly how I would put it. This is moment when the face of environmentalism is changing. We want people to see the EPA and me and our staff and understand that they don't have to be on a mountaintop with a pristine view to be an environmentalist. You can live in a city. The air you must breathe and the water you must drink should be clean. You have the right to not live next to a polluted brownfield. I am hopeful that these changes are going to happen because young people today are growing...
...sure, everyone involved would be better off if Congress could instead muster the political will to pass a climate and energy bill now (rather than in a year), for no one stands to benefit concretely from EPA regulation. Industry groups, Republicans, and coal-state Democrats would much rather have regulation of carbon emissions come as the result of congressional legislation, a process over which they can exert some influence. Environmentalists would also prefer to have federal legislation that puts in place permanent rules governing the emission of carbon rather than leaving that decision up to whoever is in the White...
...while the specter of EPA regulation of greenhouse gases may not be the solution to global warming, it nevertheless constitutes an important victory for the White House. Until the interests can be aligned to pass a climate bill (and there is good reason to believe that won’t happen until 2010), the White House can use EPA regulation as an implicit threat: If Congress can’t get its own act together, the EPA will simply move forward on regulating emissions. It also buys time to build popular support and a political coalition to pass the imperfect...
...have thus far been hands-off because they recognize that climate change doesn’t have a lot of traction in the midst of an economic downturn. Following the election, it ranked last in a survey of the American people’s top 20 policy priorities. The EPA stick that the White House now proposes to wield allows it to both distance itself from the political fallout from the legislative process while maintaining the impetus on climate change and pressure for an eventual legislative resolution...