The LAME DUCK powerless President Obama and his lame climate deal will NEVER happen and as per anything from Obama its a fraud
It will never get past the US congress for a starter
Much of the Australian media seems very excited by Barack Obama’s deal with China to slash America’s emissions today for a promise to restrain China’s by 2030. The deal:
The United States intends to achieve an economy-wide target of reducing its emissions by 26%-28% below its 2005 level in 2025 and to make best efforts to reduce its emissions by 28%. China intends to achieve the peaking of CO2 emissions around 2030 and to make best efforts to peak early and intends to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 20% by 2030.
America’s dominant political party, though, can see some obvious flaws:
- S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) slammed the climate deal announced early Wednesday morning by President Barack Obama, contending it would hurt the American economy…
“This unrealistic plan…would ensure higher utility rates and far fewer jobs...,” the senator, who is expected to be the next majority leader, concluded.
“Easing the burden already created by EPA regulations will continue to be a priority for me in the new Congress.”
More Republican anger:
- Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) ..., who is poised to take the helm of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee next year, said China cannot be expected to hold up its end of the bargain in the deal announced late Tuesday night.
“It’s hollow and not believable for China to claim it will shift 20 percent of its energy to non-fossil fuels by 2030, and a promise to peak its carbon emissions only allows the world’s largest economy to buy time,” Inhofe said in a statement on Wednesday. “China builds a coal-fired power plant every 10 days, is the largest importer of coal in the world, and has no known reserves of natural gas.”..
“The American people spoke against the President’s climate policies in this last election,” Inhofe said. “As we enter a new Congress, I will do everything in my power to reign in and shed light on the EPA’s unchecked regulations.”
UPDATE
All promises, no punishments:
The statement reiterates policies China and the United States have been developing on their own and contains no new binding limits on greenhouse emissions.
Obama is trying to commit his successors to do something so unpopular that he kept it secret until after the mid-term elections:
President Obama’s signature on the deal has no legal force. And it will be up to future Presidents and Congresses after he leaves office in January 2017 to decide whether to require the emissions reductions agreed to.
A good deal for China, not least because it costs little while hurting its main geopolitical rival:
China’s government has been discussing an energy and climate strategy based on emissions peaking in either 2025 or 2030; the joint announcement opts for the later target, which is easier to achieve.
The joint announcement employs language very carefully. Throughout, the operative word is “intend” or “intention”, which makes clear the statement is not meant to create any new obligations.
China’s 2030 emissions target is set in terms of a date but says nothing about the level at which emissions will peak.
The Greens are cheering a deal which lets China rip on coal-fired and nuclear plants:
China consumed as much coal as the rest of the world in 2012.
It plans to build another 50 coal plants, which may produce an estimated 1.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year…
It has 21 nuclear reactors in operation and another 28 under construction or planned.
The Greens cheer a deal built on technologies they actually oppose:
The Australian Greens are congratulating the US and China on their agreement to act on global warming and say it’s not too late for Australia to get on board.
“This should be a massive wake-up call to Tony Abbott. His continued climate denial and his destruction of the environment is reckless,” said Greens Leader Christine Milne.
“Tony Abbott is so busy unwinding Australia’s climate policies that he failed to notice the global economy is changing around him. He is risking billions of dollars in investment and thousands of jobs.”
In fact, the US has had emissions fall lately largely because its shale gas revolution - thanks to fracking - has dramatically lowered the price of gas, especially relative to coal, as the EPA notes:
This decrease [in emissions] from 2011 to 2012 is primarily a result of the decrease in the carbon intensity of fuels used to generate electricity due to a slight increase in the price of coal, and a significant decrease in the price of natural gas.
China’s promises to increase its non-fossil fuels to 20 per cent of all primary power supplies by using exactly the technologies the Greens hate - nuclear and hydro power:
Mainland China has 22 nuclear power reactors in operation, 26 under construction, and more about to start construction.
Additional reactors are planned, including some of the world’s most advanced, to give more than a three-fold increase in nuclear capacity to at least 58 GWe by 2020, then some 150 GWe by 2030, and much more by 2050…
Most of mainland China’s electricity is produced from fossil fuels (79% from coal, 2% from gas in 2011) and hydropower (15%)… Nuclear power contributed 2.1% of the total production in 2013 – 105 billion kWh according to IAEA....
At the end of 2010, fossil fuelled capacity (mostly coal) reached 707 GWe, hydro capacity was 213 GWe (up 16.6 GWe in the year), nuclear capacity was 10.8 GWe and wind capacity reached 31 GWe…
The Greens, though, are against fracking, against nuclear and against new dams.
The Greens wish the ends but not the means. They instead push technologies that would cripple us
