Polar bears are no longer cute and cuddly.
Via Bloomberg
The White House, as it prepares to announce new limits on carbon emissions, is working to transform the debate from distant threats to more immediate issues.
President Barack Obama wants to shift the conversation from polar bears and melting glaciers to droughts in Iowa and more childhood asthma across the nation.
Opponents are also making the issue personal. They’re homing in on the rules’ potential kitchen-table impact, raising the prospect of higher utility bills and job losses. They expect those arguments to resonate with voters as the country is still recovering from the worst recession in seven decades.
The struggle to set the terms of the climate change discussion will largely determine the durability of a key part of Obama’s second-term legacy and whether the U.S. takes aggressive action to cut greenhouse-gas emissions.
“The issue at some level will be a definition battle,” said Democratic strategist Chris Lehane, an adviser to billionaire environmental advocate Tom Steyer, who has pledged $50 million and is seeking to raise another $50 million to try to raise climate change as an electoral issue this year.
If environmental advocates succeed in casting climate change as an issue of “kids and health,” Lehane said, “you’ll hear two sounds: the coal companies getting hit, and the coal companies hitting the ground.”
Losing AdvantageIndustry groups say the threat to jobs is real. Lower energy costs are “an extraordinary advantage” that American industry has over foreign competitors, said Ross Eisenberg, a vice president at the National Association of Manufacturers.
“Manufacturers are on the verge of a comeback here,” he said. “Don’t mess that up.”
Obama will highlight the stakes for Americans in a conference call on global warming with public health groups hosted by the American Lung Association on June 2, said a White House official who declined to be identified. That’s the day when Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy is scheduled to announce the new regulations. Obama will also discuss the issue in his weekly address tomorrow.