Earlier today, President Obama announced “more than 300 private and public sector commitments to create jobs and cut carbon pollution by advancing solar deployment and energy efficiency.” In addition, he announced “new executive actions that will lead to $2 billion in energy efficiency investments in Federal buildings; smarter appliances that will cut carbon pollution by more than 380 million metric tons – equivalent to taking 80 million cars off the road for one year – and will save businesses nearly $26 billion on their energy bills; and training programs at community colleges across the country that will assist 50,000 workers to enter the solar industry by 2020.”
Miles Grant posted the following comments by Felice Stadler, senior director for climate and energy at the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) at the NWF blog. I’d simply add that it’s unfortunate President Obama has to tackle the challenge of climate change without the help of Congress. How to change that is simple: vote out every Republican we can in November and replace them with people who aren’t completely bought-and-paid-for by the fossil fuel industry!
Today’s White House announcement proves investing in clean energy is a win across the board, cutting carbon pollution, creating jobs, and saving taxpayers money. These steps forward lay the groundwork for implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s landmark, critically-needed limits on industrial carbon pollution, expected to be finalized next month. At this point, the burden of proof falls to climate action opponents to prove why we should waste money on inefficient buildings, to pay for polluting energy instead of clean solar and wind, or to let industrial polluters dump unlimited carbon into our air at no charge.
As this week’s National Climate Assessment demonstrated, climate change is the single biggest threat to America’s wildlife today. We need an all-of-the-above approach to cutting carbon pollution and the White House is showing it’s ready to lead the way.
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