By James Murray, Source: BusinessGreen

A senior White House official has revealed some of the policy interventions currently being considered by the Obama administration as it seeks to make good on the president’s bold pledge to “respond to the threat of climate change”.

In the most detailed articulation of the White House’s thinking on climate policy since this week’s inauguration address, Brian Deese, deputy director of the National Economic Council, told a conference in Washington that corporate tax reform was likely to be central to efforts to drive clean tech investment and create green jobs.

“The way that corporate tax reform gets done could have a dramatic effect, long term, about the incentives for investment in the United States for different types of technologies, renewable technologies,” he was quoted as saying by Reuters, adding that as a minimum the administration wanted to see “a level playing field” for renewable energy.

Obama was successful in extending tax breaks for wind energy and other renewable developers as part of the recent ‘fiscal cliff’ deal. But he has repeatedly failed to deliver plans to scale back tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry in the face of fierce Republican opposition.

The White House is resigned to the fact that it will struggle to deliver comprehensive climate change and energy legislation as long as Republicans control the House of Representatives. But there is some bipartisan support for proposals to scale back tax breaks for fossil fuel firms that continue to generate billions of dollars of profits, particularly given the scale of the US budget deficit.

Deese acknowledged the US would not be able to emulate governments in China and South Korea by ploughing billions of dollars directly into green industries, but he outlined how the president was keen to continue to make “targeted and smart” investments in key areas, namechecking renewables and energy efficiency as areas of particular interest.

He also hinted that the president could continue to pursue his plan for a Clean Energy Standard, which would require utilities to source a set proportion of their power from clean sources by 2030, despite likely opposition from Republicans.

Deese’s appearance came on the same day as Democrat representatives Henry Waxman and Edward Markey and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse wrote to President Obama with a series of proposed climate change actions he could take without seeking approval from Congress.

“Congress has not been interested in acting, especially in the House, in the last two years,” Waxman told reporters. “So we’re calling on the president to develop a plan for the administration to take action without action without Congress… That may well spur Congress to act.”

The letter calls on Obama to instruct the Environmental Protection Agency to develop a “much more aggressive plan of action” that builds on the emissions standards it has introduced for cars and new coal-fired power plants.

It also details how the Energy Department can be used to impose more demanding energy efficiency standards and outlines how Federal budgets and departments can be used to spur demand for clean technologies and tackle emissions of so-called “black carbon” pollution.

The Congressmen argue that the president should move quickly to develop a comprehensive climate strategy that brings these actions together and helps raise the profile of the need for action to reduce emissions and improve climate resilience.

Green groups have this week praised the president for an inauguration address that argued the US “must lead” the transition towards a low-carbon economy.

But yesterday also revealed the sheer scale of the challenges Obama will face as he battles to push forward his climate change agenda.

A bipartisan group of senators wrote to the president urging him to approve the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, arguing that this week’s approval from the Nebraska authorities meant there was “no reason” to continue to block the project.

“Because the pipeline has gone through the most exhaustive environmental scrutiny of any pipeline in the history of this country, and you already determined that oil from Canada is in the national interest, there is no reason to deny or further delay this long-studied project,” the senators wrote. “We ask you not to move the goalposts as opponents of this project have pressed you to do.”

Green groups remain fiercely opposed to the project, which would transport carbon-intensive tar sand oil from Canada to refineries in Texas, and have vowed to stage a major protest in Washington next month.

Meanwhile, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied the Obama administration’s appeal against a ruling last year that blocked the EPA’s efforts to regulate emissions from power stations and industrial sites that cross state borders.

The rule would have forced the closure of some of the dirtiest coal power plants in the US, but was fiercely opposed by Republicans who argued that it would impose unacceptable economic costs.