The head of the Environmental Protection Agency is jetting off to Paris later this week to play up President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which is at the heart of the U.S. commitment to reaching a global deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions but is facing increasing Republican opposition back home.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy “will speak about the progress the U.S. has made under President Obama’s Climate Action Plan and the need for ambitious climate targets from all countries,” the agency said Thursday morning, laying out a robust speaking agenda where she will address the emissions rules for power plants and other key aspects of Obama’s climate change agenda.
Her trip follows a vote in the House earlier this week to repeal the Clean Power Plan, which the GOP says will drive up energy costs and make the electric grid less reliable. The plan is the linchpin in the president’s broad environmental agenda to cut greenhouse gas emissions that most scientists blame for causing the Earth’s climate to warm. The president was in Paris earlier in the week to start the United Nations climate change conference, which he wants to conclude with a successful deal to cut global emissions.
Former EPA deputy administrator Bob Perciasepe, who will be linking up with McCarthy on Saturday, arrived in Paris Thursday and began to downplay Republican efforts to repeal the rules. He spoke at an event hosted by his group, the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, which will be hosting McCarthy at an event on the sidelines of the global conference.
“There have been some votes … but given the president’s position to be able to veto those votes … they are seen as substantially symbolic,” Perciasepe said. He also said the resolutions of disapproval that Congress passed have rarely been used and have not been as effective in dealing with regulations as lawmakers tout.
The administration said Wednesday that the EPA plan will move forward despite congressional opposition, although it admitted that the votes this week have sparked questions from countries at the climate talks about the U.S. commitment.
The EPA says the Clean Power Plan “is the biggest single step America has ever taken to address climate change” by cutting hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide pollution from power plants.
It said Thursday that the U.S. is on track to slash carbon pollution from the power sector 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, while delivering on efforts to address climate change through vehicle fuel economy standards for both cars and and heavy-duty vehicles, as well as “investments to cut energy waste in homes, buildings and appliances, and a common-sense proposal to cut methane from the oil and gas operations.” McCarthy will discuss all thoe efforts during her public events Dec. 5-10, ending just before the climate talks close Dec. 11.
Senate Democrats also will be jetting to the climate talks on Thursday, including Sens. Al Franken of Minnesota and Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee.
A number of Republicans are also planning to go to Paris, although their plans have not been confirmed yet.
