Obama’s Record: Agenda Pushes Sweeping Attack on Air Pollution

"The day after the November 2010 elections made clear President Obama’s greenhouse-gas legislation was doomed, he vowed to keep trying to curb emissions linked to global warming. There’s more than one way of 'skinning the cat,' he told reporters."

"Since then, Obama has used his executive powers — including his authority under the 1970 Clean Air Act — to press the most sweeping attack on air pollution in U.S. history. He has imposed the first carbon-dioxide limits on new power plants, tightened fuel-efficiency rules as part of the auto bailout and steered billions of federal dollars to clean-energy projects. He also has proposed slashing mercury emissions from utilities by 91 percent by 2016.

Obama’s end run around Republican opposition has delighted environmentalists, but it has drawn the ire of business groups and conservatives who argue he is crippling the coal industry, driving up energy costs and hurting the overall economy.

'Environmental regulation should be about protecting public health, and not about creating green jobs and mitigating hypothetical risk,' said Diane Katz, research fellow in regulatory policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation. 'Being unemployed and poor from overregulation, or zealous regulation, is a greater risk than global warming.'"

Juliet Eilperin reports for the Washington Post October 21, 2012.

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Video: "Did Obama Make Good on His Campaign Promises for the Environment?" (Washington Post)