The Daily Climate: Expectations, Hopes High for Obama Climate Policies

Off to a post-Thanksgiving afternoon with my family soon, so today's dashed-off Daily Climate takes a quick look at the current expectations and hopes for post-Bush-Cheney era leadership on stopping global warming:

"Few federal agencies are expected to undergo as radical a transformation under President-elect Barack Obama as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department," writes Juliet Eilperin at The Washington Post, "which have been at the epicenter of many of the Bush administration's most intense scientific and environmental controversies." One of the sharpest breaks with the Bush-Cheney years will be on global warming policies: Mr. Obama is expected to reverse decisions by EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson, who overruled the advice of career EPA staffers to deny California the authority to enact tougher restrictions on automobile emissions, and reject the finding that global warming poses a threat to public welfare.

In more President-elect Obama news:

• President-elect Barack Obama sent a taped message to the recent, 21-nation Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, affirming that his administration would make action on climate change a legislative priority, at The Inspired Economist.
• A bipartisan coalition of Western governors has urged President-elect Obama to act fast on easing the way for clean energy. Brock Vergakis of The Mercury News reports that the Western Governors Association's members are 19 states that are collectively responsible for "94 percent of the country's onshore oil reserves, 66 percent of its coal reserves and 100 percent of its installed solar generation." The WGA has sent Mr. Obama a four-page letter urging him not to "repeat the mistakes of the past" and instead spend tens of billions of dollars to develop clean energy technology; establish an "aggressive" greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal to help stop global warming; and propose a mandatory national system for reducing greenhouse gas emissions through "market-based mechanisms."
• National Public Radio's Richard Harris reports a good overview of the position the new administration will find itself in with climate change and international action. Although other nations are far from agreement on overarching global carbon reductions (and the president-elect will not be attending next month's climate talks in Poznan, Poland) many of their leaders are counting on Mr. Obama to lead on combatting climate change, especially given the late 2009 deadline to complete the "Son of Kyoto" treaty.

Nevada Senator Harry Reid (D) to Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons: No new coal plants. Per Stephanie Powers at The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Reid has told the governor that this month's decision by the Environmental Protection Agency’s appeals board "to block the Bonanza coal plant in Utah 'makes it overwhelmingly clear' that Nevada shouldn’t approve any new coal-fired plants without considering the 'extremely high greenhouse gas emissions' of such plants."

Although many American businesses are registering their opposition to new regulations with the agency, at least one sees an upside: "AT&T, for example, says in comments filed with the agency this week that 'telecommuting, teleconferencing and other services' could help slash emissions and boost the economy."

Video: President-elect Obama's message to the APEC Summit