White House Support

I went to the Climate and Energy Law Symposium on campus on April 9th and had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Jody Freeman discuss what the Obama administration has been doing with regards to issues related to climate change and the energy crisis. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of programs she talked about since you hardly hear anything like this in the news nowadays. During the presidential transition, Obama implemented the Recovery Act which created a Clean Energy sector in the federal government that would be focused on developing renewable energy technologies. Once in office, President Obama signed the Clean Air Act under which the EPA declared that Green House Gases were hazardous to human health and required regulation. In response to this, Obama managed to solidify and agreement amongst the automobile industries to cap emissions and focus on designing fuel efficient vehicles.

Probably one of the most publicized Obama stories with relation to science was the Copenhagen Accord. I remember reading about how the participating countries seemed deadlocked until finally, an agreement was made. According to Dr. Freeman, President Obama developed the compromise that was finally signed by 100 countries both developed and underdeveloped. A 2-degree Celsius temperature change was established as the glass ceiling, forcing all GHG emitting processes to be capped sufficiently enough to prevent the planet from heating any higher than that over time.

Compared to the last administration, President Obama has made his mark early as an investor in environmental science. I'm curious to see what else will go on during his presidency.