Climate Change -- the U.S. Federal Government

Climate Change -- the U.S. Federal Government

What federal agencies and cabinet departments are most responsible for responding to global climate change? This paper points to a number of government departments that President Barack Obama has enlisted to take steps to deal with the impact of climate change.

Agencies Involved in U.S. Response to Climate Change

The agency that has the most influence in the federal response to climate change is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA reports that the average temperature on the planet has risen by 1.4°F in the past 100 years, and the temperature is expected to rise another 2 to 11.5°F over the next century, which will have enormously negative impacts on the population in cities, in countries, on the environment, wildlife and wildlife habitat. The EPA believes that the empirical science that has been conducted over the past thirty years by the United Nations' "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change" (IPCC). Clearly, the temperature of the atmosphere and the temperature of the oceans are causing rising ocean levels, the melting of ice in the Arctic, the melting of glaciers, and the implications of this warming trend portend massive and potentially catastrophic outcomes.

So, what is the EPA doing about climate change? The EPA is: a) collecting data, which helps policy makers (politicians), businesses, and others keep track of the greenhouse gas emissions; b) developing "common-sense regulatory initiatives" like: rules for vehicles' emissions (regulating fuel use by requiring auto manufacturers to build cars that go a lot farther on a gallon of gas); c) using "geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide"; d) asking power plants, refineries and cement production plants (which produce about 70% of greenhouse gas (GHG) that the U.S. puts in the air) to reduce their GHG by a certain date to a reduced amount of GHG; and e), among other actions, the EPA has established rules for how much carbon dioxide new power plants can emit (EPA). The EPA also issues recommendations that citizens can use in their daily lives (take the bus instead of driving; use less electricity, etc.).

The EPA is also conducting analyses to ascertain the economic impacts of the rules governing how much GHG any polluting industry may emit into the atmosphere. There is strong resistance on the part of the energy industry and some influential politicians to any action that the EPA. The Republican members of the House of Representatives (of which they have a majority) sent a letter to President Obama in March, 2013, questioning the wisdom of imposing regulations on businesses vis-a-vis climate change mitigation efforts. The regulations that the EPA has issued "…impose additional costs on all sectors of the economy," the letter warned; the EPA's regulations will have "…no perceptible impacts on global greenhouse gas emissions, weather or climate conditions," the letter explained (Energy & Commerce Committee).

Meanwhile the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, has said that the idea that "…carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know, when they do what they do, you've got more carbon dioxide" (Organizing for Action).

Notwithstanding the resistance from some politicians to the reality of climate change, the White House established the Climate Change Adaption Task Force in 2009. The following federal agencies are included in this task force: Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ); Office of Science and Technology (OSTP); and the National oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (whitehouse.gov). The task force is authorized to recommend how the federal government can "…strengthen policies and programs to better prepare the nation to adapt to the impacts of climate change" (whitehouse.gov).