CONTINUING THE brisk momentum of his first days in office President Barack Obama yesterday issued executive orders on state-level fuel emission standards, fuel efficiency deadlines for the US car industry and on energy savings measures for the government itself. Together they signal his commitment to increase the country’s energy independence by reducing its reliance on foreign oil imports. His use of these and other executive orders to reverse Bush administration positions are an effective way to communicate fresh priorities with maximum publicity at home and abroad – even if most of his policies requiring congressional legislation will take longer and be more contentious.
Mr Obama deliberately pitched these announcements in a worldwide setting, pledging the US is ready to lead a global coalition against a warming planet. He hopes the US example will encourage China and India to join such an initiative, expects it will stimulate new industries and revive old ones, and by pioneering a new energy economy give the US a real competitive advantage in years to come. His instruction to the US department of transportation that tougher fuel efficiency standards must be in place for new car models in 2011 has direct implications for other car industries around the world. So does his decision to endorse more stringent Californian carbon emission standards. And any progress he can make in energy savings within the US government will also reinforce similar moves elsewhere.
These orders can therefore be taken as a sharp reversal of US exceptionalism on energy policy and a signal that much more demanding environmental priorities will flow from Washington. This is welcome news in a year when negotiations on a more rigorous regime to replace the Kyoto Protocol on global warming are set to conclude in Copenhagen next December. The US is responsible for an estimated 25 per cent of world carbon emissions, much the most profligate output, and must bear a corresponding burden in reducing them.
It will be far more difficult for Mr Obama to follow up these announcements with legislation requiring congressional approval, in what has been a notoriously interest-driven field. All the more is this so when he faces such a perilous economic downturn. But his repeated point that now is the time to make the transition away from fossil fuels is very well taken. Whoever takes the lead in that endeavour is laying down an advantage for the rest of the century. This message is prudential as much as visionary, a combination Mr Obama has shown he knows how to make and can benefit from eventually if the will is there.
With congressional elections a mere two years away, and an electorate used to short cycles of political delivery, this new approach to US energy policy will be exceptionally difficult to execute in this economic climate. Mr Obama shows courage in highlighting it so early, creating a level of expectation that could all too easily falter. It is to be hoped other governments can respond constructively, generating a genuinely international momentum for change.