Date:
Friday, September 24, 2010 - 13:15 to 15:00
Presenter:
Perry Sioshansi, President Menlo Energy Economics and Editor EEnergy Informer
Venue:
CSIRO Discovery Centre
Event Details:
Candidate Obama promised a comprehensive climate and energy policy to get into the White House. President Obama, however, has faced stiff opposition from intransigent Republicans, and even some Democrats, in both houses of the Congress but particularly in the US Senate – not unlike the experience of the former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd before the Australian Senate. Obama’s first 2-years and much of his political capital were virtually consumed on health care legislation and financial reform while energy and climate issues were delegated to the back burner, never getting to the floor of the US Senate.
Not much progress can be expected before November’s mid-term elections, and depending on the outcome, perhaps not much afterwards either. This leaves Obama with limited choices, including resorting to the Clean Air Act and the limited authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to make progress on climate issues and the even less influential Department of Energy (DOE) on energy matters.
This luncheon seminar examines these and related matters and their implications for the rest of the world in the context of the current political debate on climate in Canberra and the UN’s next climate summit in Cancun in late November.