(Bloomberg) — The Obama administration proposed guidelines
that require agencies to consider climate change in reviewing of
government actions, the latest of a string of environmental
directives after Democrats lost control of Congress.
The Council on Environmental Quality in the White House
issued the long-delayed plan for treating greenhouse-gas
emissions today. It won’t exempt any individual project on the
ground it won’t change overall trends of climate change.
“Diverse individual sources of emissions each make
relatively small additions to global atmospheric GHG
concentrations that collectively have huge impact,” according
to the council’s guidance.
Following midterm elections that cost Democrats control of
the Senate, President Barack Obama issued orders to protect the
environmental that have drawn fire from Republicans. Obama
reached a landmark deal with China to control greenhouse-gas
emissions, and his Environmental Protection Agency proposed far-reaching rules for cutting down on smog. The EPA is set to issue
long-delayed rules for the handling of coal ash tomorrow.
The guidance issued today would apply in required
environmental reviews that federal departments and agencies
conduct before they make decisions, such as approving a pipeline
or rejecting a land-use plan. The guidelines may cover highway
construction, government grants, coal sales from federal lands
or timber leasing.
The first plan proposed in 2010 was stalled in a White
House review as Republicans and industry groups warned that it
could further complicate the process of getting government
approvals.
The council today said projects that release emit carbon
equal to the exhaust of about 5,000 automobiles would be subject
to the climate review.
The administration said it would accept comments for 60
days before issuing a final version.
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Mark Drajem in Washington at
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Jon Morgan at
Steve Geimann