By Alexis Simendinger - June 25, 2013

Here’s a sentence that might give President Obama pause as he tries to make executive action on energy a reasonable substitute for inaction in Congress: “Americans are relatively unconcerned about global climate change.”

That’s the conclusion of a report on global policy attitudes released by the Pew Research Center on the eve of an Obama speech Tuesday at Georgetown University. Pew found that only 40 percent of Americans see climate change as a global risk. Americans are more worried about nuclear threats in Iran and North Korea, Islamic extremism, and the instability of international financial institutions than they are about the effects of a changing planet.

It falls to the president, then, to get more Americans interested, or to resign himself to an audience of core supporters who already agree with him. Congress will not take up legislation anytime soon, having failed in 2010 to resolve regional infighting about which energy sources merit regulatory constraints. So Obama’s bundling of executive memos, regulations, instructions, loan guarantees and task forces is a second-term fallback.

In his speech, the president will call on the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from new and existing power plants without going to Congress for new legislation. He wants to see an EPA draft rule by June 2014 and a final rule by 2015, after the EPA has spent a lot of time with “stakeholders.” The move to address carbon emissions -- the largest source of greenhouse gases -- has been debated for years, and is expected to hasten the energy industry’s race to the courthouse to block the administration through legal challenges.

“We’re beginning a process,” a White House official said Monday in a background conference call with reporters. “We see a real opportunity to cut carbon pollution.”

Obama made clear during his State of the Union address that he would revisit threats presented by climate change during his second term, with or without cooperation from lawmakers. In his view, moving ahead, even incrementally, is justified and a reflection of “reality,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

“If Congress won't act soon to protect future generations, I will,” Obama said in his January address. “I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take now and in the future to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.”

During his first term, Obama ordered the auto industry to nearly double average fuel efficiency standards by 2025, as a way to reduce energy consumption and emissions. He has been a determined proponent of federal support for alternative energy technologies. And for the first time in 50 years, the United States is now a net exporter of gasoline, improving energy independence, even as critics say the switch has hiked pump prices.

By urging EPA to regulate existing power plants, Obama is expected to trigger sharp political battles that do not break strictly along party lines. The goals, the administration said, are to “protect the health of our children and move our economy toward American-made clean energy sources that will create good jobs and lower home energy bills.” In many parts of the country that currently rely on high-emission power plants, the president’s boast about adding jobs and lowering bills through tough EPA regulations will likely find a chilly reception.

White House officials said Obama had not decided, in conjunction with the State Department, whether to approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline that has been proposed from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. (The president already approved the lower stretch of the pipeline from Oklahoma to the Gulf.) Republicans have called on Obama to approve the pipeline to create jobs, while the administration has expressed reservations about the environmental impacts.

“This proposal is not yet ready for a determination,” a White House official told reporters after summarizing a prolonged review process.

Obama in his speech Tuesday is expected to say climate change is the byproduct of manmade factors, and to note the preponderance of scientific studies that support climate change and the correlations with weather symptoms. The president has rarely taken the time to publicly broach the scientific explanations for the effects of greenhouse gases, but he eagerly deployed the politics of science as a weapon against conservatives during his 2012 campaign.

“You’ve got a governor whose state is on fire denying climate change!” Obama warned an audience during a 2011 campaign rally. He was talking about Republican Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, at the time a presidential aspirant.

Officials said the president will argue again this week that wildfires, weather extremes, crop damages, flooding and other measurable changes around the planet are the result of climate change. The damage can be mitigated with policy changes Congress has not taken up, Obama believes. But meanwhile, Americans also need to be prepared to survive the weather effects, he is expected to say.

Obama wants to send “the best climate science to decision makers” and he wants federal agencies to help cities and towns around the country invest in “climate-resistant” policies, such as new road construction that will survive flooding and hurricanes.

“Even as we take new steps to cut carbon pollution, we must also prepare for the impacts of a changing climate that are already being felt across the country,” Obama’s advisers added.

