On one hand, Jeb Bush, one of the leading GOP White House contenders, posted a statement on his website about the Obama Administration’s EPA rules to cut greenhouse gas emissions, "The rule runs over state governments, will throw countless people out of work, and increases everyone's energy prices." An Aug 3, 2015 National Journal article described President Obama's personal motivations for creating such rules. The article describes him as acting "for the sake of his daughters, their kids, and the kids and grandkids of all Americans.” …Obama has talked about how, as an undergraduate in Los Angeles, the pollution was so bad that "folks couldn't go outside." And he has blamed rising temperatures for his daughter Malia's asthma attacks when she was 4.
State's rights, jobs, cost, sustainability, climate change, ecology, and public health...they are all there in the emerging debate over who should be president in 2016. Lying behind this debate is a likely strong move forward for global climate change policy in Paris at the end of 2015. This blog explores how the candidates position themselves relative to environmental issues. How do they frame ecological disasters? How does the language they use direct policy? What political powers do they see as appropriate for environmental legislation and what not? With so many candidates and a deep well of environmental issues, there is a lot to explore.