President Barack Obama is signing an executive order Thursday that he said would cut the federal government’s greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade by 40 percent from 2008 levels.
White House officials describe the action as showing leadership as Obama presses other nations to do more to reduce their own emissions of the gases that scientists say are heating the atmosphere. There are hopes for a global change agreement to be reached in Paris in December.
Brian Deese, senior adviser to the president, said several major suppliers to the federal government, including the companies IBM, GE, Northrup Grumman, HP and Honeywell, were also announcing intentions Thursday to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions. GE, for example, is pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent from 2011 levels, according to the White House.
Deese said the combined commitments of the federal government and the suppliers would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26 million metric tons from 2008 levels by 2025, representing the equivalent of taking nearly 5.5 million cars off the road for a year. There was little immediate information on how those goals would be reached.
It’s the latest in a series of moves Obama has made on climate change, including an Environmental Protection Agency plan to slash the carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants that Congressional Republicans argue would harm the coal industry and lead to higher electricity rates.
The White House maintained that cutting the federal government’s greenhouse gas emissions would end up saving taxpayers billions of dollars and increase to 30 percent the share of electricity the federal government gets from renewable sources.
Obama’s executive order directs federal agencies to ensure that 25 percent of their energy consumption is from “clean energy sources” over the next decade.
It also tells them to cut energy use in federal buildings by 2.5 percent a year, reduce water use by 2 percent a year, and lower the per-mile greenhouse gas emissions from federal vehicles by 30 percent by 2025.