WASHINGTON: Four former heads of the US Environmental Protection Agency, who served under Republican presidents, urged lawmakers yesterday to stop bickering over whether climate change is real, and start finding solutions.
Global warming is an increasingly polarising issue in American politics, with most Republicans questioning the science behind it and most Democrats calling for stricter pollution limits.
In the absence of legislation to curb fossil fuel burning, President Barack Obama earlier this month called on the EPA to set carbon pollution standards for power plants that would cut carbon emissions 30 percent by 2030.
Obama’s proposal, his most ambitious yet against climate change, also called for increasing global cooperation to curb pollution and for US financial incentives for renewable energy.
“President Obama’s new climate regulations... will harm our fragile American economy,” Senator John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, told the hearing of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
“Thousands of people will lose their jobs,” he added, describing the measures as “all pain and little gain” toward reducing global temperature.
AFP
