Liberal

Goldberg: Federal government must set pace for future environmental policy

After years of political stagnation courtesy of Congressional inaction and resistance, March has brought forward progress to America’s environmental policy.

As last week came to a close, President Obama and his administration made a series of announcements regarding significant updates to federal environmental regulation. On Thursday, March 19, President Obama signed an executive order mandating the reduction of federal greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent of 2008 levels by 2020. Additionally, all federal agencies are required to increase their use of renewable energy to 30 percent by the same year. The following day, the Obama administration released much-anticipated regulations of hydraulic fracturing on federal land. These fracking rules are the first federal regulations for the industry, and can be expected to have a wide effect across the nation.

President Obama’s actions should be lauded as an inventive and appropriate use of executive power and leadership to set a national example as well as begin top-down systemic change for environmental benefit.

While the federal government accounts for only 1 percent of American greenhouse gas emissions, it is still by far the largest single consumer of energy in the United States. In that capacity, federal agencies can not only serve as a proving ground for emissions standards, they can work directly with and influence their major suppliers, which include companies like IBM and General Electric.

Already, these major companies have promised new and renewed commitments to higher environmental standards. At a meeting with Obama just after the announcement last week, IBM announced a goal of reducing its emissions by 35 percent from 2005 totals. The same day, the Obama Administration released a scorecard for these major federal suppliers to report and track emissions disclosures, furthering the ability of the federal government to guide American corporations toward sustainable practices.



The Interior Department’s fracking regulations were met with slightly less applause when they were released on Friday. Already multiple national industry groups have launched lawsuits to strike down these rules, while environmental groups complained that these regulations are not nearly strict enough. Regardless, the fact that these rules update decades-old regulations to account for the process of fracking is already a huge step in the right direction.

Despite claims that these regulations are too weak, they still create important new areas of oversight for, and transparency from, oil and gas companies. The companies operating almost 100,000 rigs on federal land will now be required to submit to government inspections to validate the “safety and integrity” of the wells used in the fracking process. They are now required to store chemical-laden wastewater in closed containers until it can be permanently disposed of; and, companies must provide highly detailed information about the geology of the wells and surrounding areas to the Bureau of Land Management.

Though these rigs only account for about 10 percent of all fracking in the U.S., these regulations can be expected to have much more widespread effects. The vast majority of fracking occurs on state and local lands, and with almost no current regulations on these wells, the agencies that oversee these lands can be expected to turn to these new Department of Interior rules for guidance when crafting their own over the next few years.

In dealing with the impending threat of climate change and a Congress that has no plan to address it, President Obama and his administration should be commended on their determination to enact and inspire change in less direct, but still effective ways.

Zach Goldberg is a senior economics, policy studies and energy and its impacts major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at zrgoldbe@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @zgolds.





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