McConnell Declares War on a Livable Climate, Aims to Stop National and Global Action - by Joe Romm

Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is taking extraordinary measures to block the most modest efforts aimed at preventing catastrophic climate change.  He has begun an “aggressive campaign to block” EPA’s carbon pollution standards “in statehouses and courtrooms across the country, arenas far beyond Mr. McConnell’s official reach and authority,” as the New York Times reports.

Tragically, while his efforts can’t save the coal industry, which is “dead man walking,” as Deutsche Bank has explained, McConnell can certainly make it much harder for Americans to save ourselves from Dust-Bowlification and the loss of our coastal cities.

On Thursday, the coal-state senator Senator sent out an an unprecedented letter to every governor in the country urging them not to comply with federal law.  But this campaign is aimed at a much bigger target than the relatively limited EPA rules — which are so weak that we’ll come close to meeting them simply because of low natural gas prices and state and federal efforts to expand energy efficiency and renewable energy.

McConnell is trying to “undercut Mr. Obama’s position internationally as he tries to negotiate a global climate change treaty to be signed in Paris in December,” the New York Times reports. “The idea is to create uncertainty in the minds of other world leaders as to whether the United States can follow through on its pledges to cut emissions.”

Read more at McConnell Declares War on a Livable Climate, Aims to Stop National and Global Action