N.Y. TIMES
President Obama’s new plan to fight climate change depends heavily on states’ devising individual approaches to meeting goals set in the nation’s capital...Rather than imposing a uniform standard for reducing power plant carbon emissions, the regulation unveiled on Monday offers the states flexibility to pick from a menu of policy options....Monday’s announcement of the proposed regulation — which is intended to cut carbon pollution from power plants by 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030 — represented Mr. Obama’s boldest step in using his executive authority to halt the warming of the planet, an issue he vowed to address during his first presidential campaign six years ago.
In order to comply with the new national rule, states can, among other actions, shut down coal plants, install wind and solar power and energy-efficiency technology, or join the California or Northeastern cap-and-trade programs. E.P.A. officials said states could even choose to comply by enacting a state-level tax on carbon pollution.
“I’ve never seen anything like this, where states get this much flexibility. It’s astounding,” said Dallas Burtraw, an expert on electricity markets with Resources for the Future, a Washington research group. “The E.P.A. is signaling maximal deference to the states.”
In introducing the regulation, Mr. Obama called it “a sensible, state-based plan” and dismissed the criticism.
“I promise you, you will hear from critics who say the same thing they always say — that these guidelines will kill jobs or crush the economy,” [Obama] told environmental activists in a conference call organized by the American Lung Association. “What we’ve seen every time is these claims are debunked when you actually give workers and businesses the tools and incentives to innovate.”
The regulation, which must go through a public comment period before taking effect, will certainly be challenged in the courts and in Congress, but Mr. Obama has past judicial rulings to cite in his defense and enough votes on Capitol Hill that would allow him to veto any opposing legislation and make it stick.
If the regulation survives the lobbyists and lawyers intact, the battles will move to state capitals as businesses, environmentalists and lawmakers joust in 50 separate arenas over the scope of the resulting rules.
Just as some states balked at devising ways of carrying out Mr. Obama’s health care program, forcing the federal government to step in in many cases, some governors are signaling that they will resist the new restrictions on power plants.
That could set up a standoff in which the E.P.A. would step in and force states to comply with a plan devised by federal rather than state officials.