Huffington Magazine Issue 33 | Page 83

OBAMA 2.O / ENVIRONMENT Those rules outraged the coalburning industry, which currently has no realistic way to meet the emissions limits. Large-scale carbon capture and control technology is decades from commercialization, despite the roughly $5 billion the Obama administration has invested in developing “clean coal” technology. The upshot: The rule effectively prevents the building of new coal plants. In the second Obama term, environmental groups want more. They want to see those rules finalized, and more importantly, they want new rules for existing power plants, which account for roughly 40 percent of the country’s emissions. Just how aggressive the administration will be is an open question, given that it would almost certainly force existing coal plants to shutt W"