With Alarmist New Report, Obama Environmental Agenda In High Gear

by Sam Rolley 
In an effort to create a catalyst for President Barack Obama to cement his legacy as the Nation’s climate-action executive, the White House released an 840-page alarmist National Climate Assessment (NCA) Tuesday, which will serve as a justification for the President to unilaterally impose harsh new Environmental Protection Agency mandates.
Obama vowed last summer that climate change would be a top-priority for his second term in the Oval Office. He’s now positioned himself to use his pen-and-phone style of governance to make good on the promise. With the release of its climate change assessment this week, the White House made clear that it is finished debating whether climate change is real.

“If you want to try to side with the polluters and argue to the American public that climate is not happening today, tomorrow and certainly in the future, that’s going to be a losing argument,” White House adviser John Podesta said during a press event earlier this week.
The President’s science adviser, John Holdren, also weighed in on the report that was created with the help of 300 climate experts working for 13 Federal agencies, calling it “loudest and clearest alarm bell to date.”
The report concludes that man-made global warming will cause sea levels to rise by between 1 and 4 feet over the next 100 years and spur increasingly devastating droughts, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and other storms.
According to the assessment, the rising sea levels and droughts are of particular concern because of rapid population growth in the Nation’s coastal regions and the arid Southwest in recent decades.
“After at least two thousand years of little change, sea level rose by roughly 8 inches over the last century, and satellite data provide evidence that the rate of rise over the past 20 years has roughly doubled,” the NCA continued.

“In the U.S., millions of people and many of the nation’s assets related to military readiness, energy, transportation, commerce, and ecosystems are located in areas at risk of coastal flooding because of sea level rise and storm surge,” the NCA added.
The report contends that the climate disaster can be averted only if mankind stops using fossil fuels, which provide 90 percent of the world’s energy.
The President’s plan to cut carbon pollution in the United States includes efforts that the White House has already tried with disappointing results and others that were halted by lawmakers earlier in Obama’s Presidency. Americans can expect the President to unilaterally revive Clean Air Act regulations that could make it very difficult for companies to produce coal-fired power by as soon as 2015.
In the past, lawmakers skeptical of global warming alarmism have enjoyed minor victories in keeping the Clean Air regulations at bay. But, according to Podesta, things will now be different.
“They’ll find various ways, particularly in the House, to try to stop us from using the authority we have under the Clean Air Act. All I would say is that those have zero percent chance of working. We’re committed to moving forward with those rules,” he said.

Coal is one of many industries the Obama Administration is intent on regulating more harshly in coming years.
“When it comes to the oil and gas sector, investments to build and upgrade gas pipelines will not only put more Americans to work, but also reduce emissions and enhance economic productivity,” the White House said with the release of the NCA report.
The Administration has hinted at forthcoming regulations that will affect things such as automobile fuel standards and the types of building materials Americans are allowed to use on new-construction homes by 2020.
As the Nation’s regulatory burden increases due to the President’s climate agenda, so will the amount of money the government spends on “clean energy” initiatives and other projects aimed at cutting emissions.
“President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2015 Budget continues to further American leadership by investing approximately $6.9 billion in funding for clean energy technology programs,” the Administration said. “This includes investment in a range of energy technologies, from advanced biofuels and emerging nuclear technologies to clean coal.”