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    Obama announces controversial Clean Power Plan to tackle climate change

    This is why we can’t have nice things.

    Barack Obama is preparing to unveil an ambitious new scheme to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the US – but it’s already facing opposition.

    The revised Clean Power Plan will aim to cut carbon emissions from US power stations by nearly a third by 2030, focusing on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power as clean alternatives.

    Obama calls it “the biggest, most important step we have ever taken to combat climate change”, but he’s up against some big opponents in the energy industry.

    Coal-fired power plants provide over a third of US electricity, and many companies have already announced that they will not comply with the Clean Power Plan.

    “The Administration seems increasingly desperate to salvage an ill-advised and poorly designed rule, which won’t work, won’t pass muster with states, and won’t stand up to legal scrutiny,” said Arch Coal representative Deck Slone.

    Opponents of the Clean Power Plan argue that as international economies depend on fossil fuels, America will fall behind the emerging Asian economy. Over 20 US states are preparing to challenge the Plan, with some state governors saying that they will ignore it.

    Despite the controversy, the Democratic Party is standing firm by Obama. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has vowed to defend it if she is elected President.

    “It will need defending,” she said, “Because Republican doubters and defeatists – including every Republican candidate for president – won’t offer any credible solution. The truth is, they don’t want one.”

    Mrs Clinton’s acknowledgement and support of plans to tackle climate change could not be further from the arguments of popular Republican candidate Donald Trump, a famous denier of climate change.

    And Trump hasn’t changed his mind. Speaking to Palin Update last week, he said: “The real climate change is going to be nuclear climate change if we’re not smart and tough and very, very careful because that’s a big danger and that’s a real danger. I think Obama just said that the biggest threat that we have on the planet today is climate change, and a lot of people are saying, did he really say that? We have people chopping off heads and he’s talking about climate change. I call it weather. I call it weather. You know, the weather changes.”

    With the US election drawing nearer, Obama’s legacy of a greener future for America is already in danger.

     

    Related: NASA study finds Indian and Pacific oceans temporarily hide global warming