http://www.energyefficiencynews.com/articles/i/5519/?cid=3

 

Neither candidate may have mentioned climate change during the pre-election debates, but now he has been returned to office, President Barack Obama is being urged to take action.

 

Eileen Claussen, president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, says no one is better placed than Obama to make Americans understand the risks of global warming and the need to move to clean energy.

"Capping a year of record heat, drought and wildfires, Hurricane Sandy has driven home to Americans like never before the here-and-now costs of climate change. With the election behind him, President Obama has an opportunity and an obligation to press the case for stronger climate action," she said in a statement.

Claussen is urging the President to ensure that the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) can move ahead with greenhouse gas standards for emitters and help states take market-based approaches to emission reductions.

"We also urge the president and Congress to place climate change alongside the nation's other pressing challenges, and to consider approaches such as a carbon tax that can help solve more than one at the same time," she adds.

Climate campaigners may take heart from Obama victory speech in which he promised a future that "isn't threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet" and where the US is freed from foreign oil.

Obama has said in the run up to the election that he will pursue his "all of the above" energy strategy but in the short-term is going to come under increasing pressure to take quick and decisive action over renewable energy tax credits, which are due to expire at the end of the year and threaten to put the whole industry in jeopardy.