Change of Climate

Lost in the Supreme Court decisions of the past week was President Obama's pledge to do something about global warming.  What can he do about it without Congress? Not much.  But it's something.

The President announced on Tuesday that he plans to regulate existing coal-powered electric plants through the Environmental Protection Agency under the auspices of the Clean Air Act.  Because coal-powered electrical plants account for 40 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, Obama hopes to cut U.S emissions by 17 percent by the time this decade ends.  He was also coy about the Keystone XL pipeline, suggesting that he would only approve it if he could be absolutely certain that it would not leak and cause an environmental problem.  That must mean he won't approve it.  How could anyone be certain it wouldn't leak?  

Meanwhile, there's a current bipartisan consensus regarding Obama's plan in Congress.  There are both Republicans and Democrats who are against it.  GOP House Speaker John Boehner called it "crazy," while Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) dismissed it as a plan that would destroy jobs in the coal mining industry.

Good.  My mother's maternal grandfather was a coal miner in northeastern Pennsylvania, and, like coal miners today, he faced the very real threat of being buried alive or choked to death by toxic fumes.  When a tunnel in the mine he was working in collapsed, that was it for my Great-Grandma Bellarosa, who made her husband quit her job and moved her family, including my maternal grandmother, to New Jersey, where my great-grandfather found a different sort of job.  I don't remember what sort of job he got; I think he worked as a janitor in a factory.  One thing's for sure; he never worked in a coal mine again.

And a lot of coal miners shouldn't be doing that work now.  Now is the time to develop more jobs in solar and wind energy, jobs that will pay more and lift the economy. Where are the jobs, Mr. Boehner? I just told you!