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Green, labor coalition urges Obama to tackle climate change
A coalition of green groups and labor organizations want President Obama to ramp up climate change efforts in his second term.
The BlueGreen Alliance and 11 of its member organizations sent a letter to Obama urging him to give climate change a high profile and to continue setting air pollution limits.
“Your leadership on climate change over the last four years has been commendable. We look forward to working with you over the next four as we finally come to grips with the solutions that will put Americans back to work and put our climate on a path to stability,” David Foster, executive director with the BlueGreen Alliance, wrote in the letter that was made public Thursday.
Specifically, the organizations want Obama to push for measures to improve infrastructure resiliency for extreme weather events, impose carbon emission limits on existing coal-fired power plants and engage Congress on climate change.
“The dramatic impact of Hurricane Sandy can and should be the end point of our confusion on the central questions concerning climate change: It is real, it is accelerated by human actions, and if we fail to preempt its frightening costs, we will imperil our economic future,” BlueGreen Alliance said in a statement.
While scientists have avoided saying climate change directly caused Sandy, they have said its effects — such as rising sea levels and warmer waters — contributed to the storm’s intensity.
After disappointing environmentalists on the campaign trail by keeping quiet on climate change, Obama has said he would tackle the issue in his second term.
Still, Obama has been short on specifics. He has instead pointed to past accomplishments, such as rolling out the first-ever emissions caps on new coal-fired power plants and finalizing vehicle fuel efficiency standards.
