The nation can expect environmental regulations to start tightening soon after President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January, former Environmental Protection Agency chief Christine Todd Whitman predicted Thursday in Pittsburgh.
But because of the ongoing financial crisis pummeling the U.S. and global economies, Obama probably will be forced to scale back or delay some of his campaign promises on a cleaner environment and other issues, said Whitman, the Republican former New Jersey governor who led the EPA during President Bush's first term.
"Clearly, one of the greatest challenges the Obama administration faces is finding that balance" between the expectations of supporters and what's possible under the circumstances, Whitman told about 200 participants at a symposium presented by Duquesne University's School of Business and Beard Center for Leadership in Ethics.
Obama is expected to instruct the EPA to use the 1990 Clean Air Act as a guideline for setting carbon dioxide emissions limits on power plants and manufacturers. This would be a departure from the position taken by Bush. He declined to curb CO2 emissions even after the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the Clean Air Act gives the EPA authority to regulate the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
"I think (Obama) will tell EPA to exercise the authority that the Supreme Court determined that it had to regulate carbon," Whitman said in an interview. "You probably won't see an administration bill on carbon or climate change in the first year or two. You may not see it in this Congress, though you might see it in the next one.
"But there will effectively be a cap on carbon if they get the EPA to move forward," she said.
Obama has called for annual targets that would aim to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and then by an additional 80 percent by 2050. The president-elect and many others believe carbon emissions are pollutants that contribute to global climate change.
During the campaign, Obama "made several very far-reaching promises and set some very high goals for himself -- some of which may have to be scaled back. There is no question about it given the current fiscal crisis we're facing in this country," Whitman said.
Obama fully realizes he will have to modify some of his plans, even if it is just the time frame he put on certain goals, Whitman believes.
"He really set the tone for it on election night, when he said we may not get this done right away. He may not get it done even in this term but 'we're going to get it done.' That's what people really want to hear," she said. "That's really the responsible way to approach it given he's facing this uncertain world that we have."
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