Climate Change Meets Kitchen Table as Issue Gets Personal [View all]

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-30/climate-change-meets-kitchen-table-as-issue-gets-personal.html


President Barack Obama inspects drought-stricken corn with farmer Roger McIntosh as he visits the McIntosh farm in Missouri Valley, Iowa, in this Aug. 13, 2012 file photo

If President Barack Obama has his way, the conversation on climate change will shift from polar bears and melting glaciers to droughts in Iowa and more childhood asthma across the nation.

The White House, as it prepares to announce new limits on carbon emissions, is working to transform the debate from distant threats to issues of here and now.

Opponents are also making the issue personal. They’re homing in on the rules’ potential kitchen-table impact, raising the prospect of higher utility bills and job losses. They expect those arguments to resonate with voters as the country is still recovering from the worst recession in seven decades.

The struggle to set the terms of the climate change discussion will largely determine the durability of a key part of Obama’s second-term legacy and whether the U.S. takes aggressive action to cut greenhouse-gas emissions.