Obama’s clean energy plan

By The Data Team

AMERICA is often lambasted as a carbon villain. It does account for 15% of global CO2 emissions, but it is also a world leader in (non-hydropower) renewables, and today Barack Obama announces stiff new curbs on power-station emissions. They aim to make a 32% cut from 2005 levels by 2030. A Supreme Court ruling in 2007 classified CO2 as a pollutant, putting it within the remit of the Environmental Protection Agency. That allows the president to take unilateral action, bypassing Congress. The limits on carbon emissions have great political significance: they delight climate-conscious liberals, but will hit America’s struggling coal country hard. Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, won re-election in Kentucky last year with a simple slogan: “Coal. Guns. Freedom.” Democrats are about to become even more unpopular there, and in West Virginia and Wyoming.