Obama: limits on power plants' CO2 emissions

President Obama announced on Monday new federal limits on power plants' CO2 emissions. Declaring climate change the greatest threat facing the world, Obama said the regulation requiring the power sector to cut its emissions by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030 would reduce Americans' energy bills and improve the health of vulnerable populations nationwide, reports Reuters. The plan, which also mandates a shift to renewable energy from coal-fired electricity, is meant to put the United States in a strong position at international talks in Paris later this year on reaching a deal to curb global warming.

Obama is enacting the plan by executive order, bypassing Congress, which rejected legislative attempts to reduce pollution from carbon dioxide, a common greenhouse gas blamed by scientists for heating the earth. The regulations face certain legal challenges from states and industries, and their long-term fate depends on their ability to withstand such challenges. The Clean Power Plan is intended to be a key part of the president's legacy on global warming, which he pledged to fight as a candidate for the White House in 2008.

"We're the first generation to feel the impact of climate change. We're the last generation that can do something about it," Obama told a sympathetic audience at the White House. "We only get one home. We only get one planet. There's no plan B."

While U.S. power-plant carbon emissions account for just 5% of global carbon emissions, Mr. Obama and his top aides hope the domestic regulation will help prompt similar commitments by other major-emitting countries around the world ahead of a United Nations conference in November and December, writes the Wall Street Journal. The rule, which is facing fierce political pushback from Republicans in Congress as well as on the presidential campaign trail, will accelerate a shift already underway in the utility sector toward cleaner fuels, renewable energy and consumer-generated power. More than a dozen states and the coal industry have vowed to sue the EPA, and several states have threatened to refuse to comply with the rule.

“Instead of being a shining achievement for his legacy, this will be remembered as another irresponsible policy that makes it even harder for Americans to provide for their families and reach the American dream,” House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) said in a statement Monday.