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U.S. climate treaty vow relies on tenuous Obama actions

The Columbian
Published: April 1, 2015, 12:00am

WASHINGTON — The United States put forth its contribution Tuesday to a global climate treaty, relying entirely on a set of emission cuts ordered by President Barack Obama that may not survive beyond the end of his presidency.

Environmental groups and like-minded governments hailed the U.S. pledge as substantial and ambitious, and Obama’s aides waxed hopeful that the U.S. announcement would spur other countries to follow America’s lead. Yet with Obama’s actions at home facing serious legal challenges and intense political opposition, the Obama administration conceded that many foreign capitals are dubious the U.S. will live up to its commitment.

Todd Stern, the U.S. special envoy for climate change, said the pollution rules Obama is counting on to achieve the U.S. goal are on solid legal ground, pushing back on Republicans who have pledged to repeal them or stop them before they can take effect.

To fulfill its pledge, the U.S. has until 2025 to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases 26 to 28 percent below the levels recorded in 2005. Obama first set that goal late last year as part of a joint climate agreement with China, then codified it Tuesday as the formal U.S. contribution to the climate treaty that nations are seeking to finalize by December, when leaders convene in Paris.

The United States is already part of the way there. Earlier in his presidency Obama set a goal to cut emissions 17 percent by 2020, and the boom in U.S. natural gas production has had the ancillary effect of curbing emissions from dirtier coal-fired power plants.

In its written pledge, known to climate negotiators as an Intended Nationally Determined Contribution, the U.S. did not offer an exact formula for how it would achieve the remaining reductions. Yet it pointed to an array of steps Obama has taken or is taking to curb emissions. Obama has ordered higher fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks, methane limits for energy production, cuts in federal government emissions and unprecedented pollution rules for new and existing power plants.

Many of those steps have drawn the ire of some Democrats and almost all Republicans — not to mention the energy industry. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has been urging U.S. states not to comply with Obama’s power plant rules, and argued that the U.S. could never meet Obama’s target even if those rules do survive.

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