Gore: Congress must ‘face reality’

Former Vice President Gore blasted Congress Friday as “intransigent and inactive” while applauding new Environment Protection Agency regulations meant to combat climate change.

Gore praised the EPA’s move Friday to require future coal power plants to capture carbon emissions as an important step toward solving what he argues is a climate crisis. 

But Gore said Congress would soon have to come to terms with global warming after blocking past efforts at legislation.

{mosads}“In the face of an intransigent and inactive Congress, the president has made halting the climate crisis a priority,” he said. 

“Congress must also soon face the reality of the situation,” he said.

The new rules rolled out Friday by EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy are part of a broader package of environmental proposals President Obama pushed in a June speech. 

Opponents of the new regulations have said the price of the new technology would effectively rule out the construction of new coal power plants. The EPA is expected to issue regulations for existing plants next year. 

Gore took Congress to task for not approving a cap-and-trade bill in 2010 and again said the United States needs to set a price on carbon emissions, blaming Superstorm Sandy, wildfires and droughts on global warming. 

“Three years ago, Congress failed to put a price on carbon and, in doing so, allowed global warming pollution to continue unabated,” he said. “We have seen the disturbing consequences that the climate crisis has to offer.”