Obama’s climate policy highlights oil pipeline and coal power

CNN : In a speech at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, President Obama outlined his new climate policy. One of the main topics was the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline to bring oil sands from Canada to Texas. Obama said the project’s approval hinged on the pipeline not significantly increasing carbon pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency believes the energy needed to pump the crude oil and sand mixture and then filter it in the US would increase CO₂ emissions by 18.7 million metric tons per year. The State Department is currently in the final stages of reviewing the project. Perhaps even more significant, Obama ordered the EPA to establish carbon pollution standards for all currently active coal plants. He had previously ordered regulations for all new coal plants. Coal currently accounts for 40% of the US’s electricity production, and it is also a sizable export. The Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, estimates that the regulations previously established for new coal plants would cost the industry $4 billion but save the economy $25 billion to $60 billion, mostly in reduced health-care spending.