The furious reaction from the American right and vested interest groups to President Barack Obama's dramatic announcement of his Clean Power Plan last week is a barometer of how radical it is. Under the plan, all 50 US states would be required to set reduction targets for carbon emissions from the electricity generation sector, with a view to cutting these by 32 per cent by 2030. The targets, to be set by the US Environmental Protection Agency, would inevitably lead to the closure of ageing coal-fired power plants that currently supply as much as 37 per cent of the electricity used by Americans, provoking charges from Republicans that Mr Obama is declaring "war on coal". In fact, many of these plants date back to the Eisenhower era and should have been closed down years ago.
For years, the US has been dragging its heels, and worse, on the most important environmental challenge facing humanity. US politicians regularly berated China for doing nothing to excuse their own inaction. But now that China has put forward its own ambitious plans to curb climate change, they can no longer resort to such whipping-boy tactics. Mr Obama, however, is clever enough to see that the US must play its part in reaching a comprehensive agreement in Paris – even though any such deal cannot be called a "treaty", as that would require US Senate approval.
The president knows that there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that the Senate, with its slim Republican majority augmented by dissident Democrats representing coal-producing states, would vote in favour of an international treaty on climate change. Republicans claim that Mr Obama’s Clean Power Plan would result in higher electricity bills as well as job losses in the coal sector, on the basis of some “whim” by the president favouring solar and wind power.
A determined campaign will be waged against the $8.4 billion plan, with legal challenges likely to go all the way to the Supreme Court. But the US EPA has said the plan "is wholly consistent with the law, and we are confident it will withstand any and all legal challenges".