President Barack Obama is planning on introducing major changes to policy in an effort to combat climate change including limiting greenhouse gas emissions from new and existing power plants for the first time, according to The New York Times.
Heather Zichal, the White House coordinator for energy and climate change, told The New York Times that the president would announce the new policy in a few weeks.
"He is serious about making it a second-term priority," Zichal said. "He knows this is a legacy issue."
President Obama mentioned the subject while giving a speech at Berlin's iconic Brandenburg Gate on Wednesday. The president said that "our dangerous carbon emissions have come down. But we know we have to do more - and we will do more," according to the Washington Post.
"Peace with justice means refusing to condemn our children to a harsher, less hospitable planet," President Obama said. "The effort to slow climate change requires bold action. And on this, Germany and Europe have led."
In addition to limiting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants there are two other key areas that the president is expected to address in the new environmental policy; making appliances more energy efficient and developing more clean energy sources on public lands, according to the Washington Post.
Zichal was clear in her remarks that none of the policy changes that the president is expected to make will require legislative action of financing from Congress. Although it is expected that if the Environmental Protection Agency attempts to reduce power plant emissions that there will be staunch opposition in both Congress and within the industry, according to The New York Times.
During his speech in Germany President Obama emphasized just how important it is to do everything possible to halt climate change, not just for the United States but for the entire world.
"The grim alternative affects all nations - more severe storms, more famine and floods, new waves of refugees, coastlines that vanish, oceans that rise," President Obama said. "This is the future we must avert. This is the global threat of our time. And for the sake of future generations, our generation must move toward a global compact to confront a changing climate before it is too late. That is our job. That is our task. We have to get to work."
If the EPA lowers greenhouse emissions the industry that is expected to take the biggest hit is the coal industry, an industry that has hit hard times already as many power plants switch to cheaper natural gas.
"The EPA has been working very hard on rules that focus specifically on greenhouse gases from the coal sector," Zichal said. "They're doing a lot of important work in that space."
