What’s in store for climate change policy in Obama’s second term?

Climate change advocates and policy experts are predicting that environmental policy will be highlighted in Washington politics once again after both New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s endorsement and President Barack Obama’s victory speech after his reelection.
“Now that Obama will never have to face voters again, he may attempt to make global warming a key part of his legacy,” Marc Morano, publisher of Climate Depot and former staffer on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an email.
“There’s the big question of: Does the president use the bully pulpit, the power of the executive agency… to do a much more aggressive job of educating the American public about the reality, the urgency, the impacts, and the costs of inaction on climate change and start to shape the politics on this issue over the next four years,” Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, told The DC News Foundation.

In the president’s second term, expect more action from the EPA and executive branch than Congress — though some think a carbon tax could be enacted under the right circumstances.
EPA regulations
The Environmental Protection Agency will move to implement more greenhouse gas regulations on power plants and has already moved forward with rules to reduce emissions under the Clean Air Act.
“For the big ticket items of substantial emission reductions over the next four years, it’s really using existing authority of EPA and other agencies to move forward on an executive basis, particularly on coal power plants, but also more on the transportation side,” said Meyer.
The New Source Performance Standards, an example of such environmental rules, limit emissions from new or modified power plants and refineries and have effectively banned the construction of new coal plants, according to critics.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/10/whats-in-store-for-climate-change-policy-in-obamas-second-term/#ixzz2BuQnG8xp