MSNBC Host Calls on Obama to Create Executive Climate Change 'Regime'

Chris Hayes on MSNBC reacting to President Obama’s threat to act alone on cap and trade during his 2013 State of the Union Address:

“The Supreme Court has found the EPA has the power under the Clean Air Act right now to regulate carbon under the Clean Air Act. And what that means is that the EPA could by itself, unilaterally, put in essentially what would be a carbon regime–a cap-and-trade kind of regime… The executive has the authority right now to do the things that the fossil fuel industry and conservatives and Republicans and many others have been fighting tooth and nail to make sure doesn’t happen.

And what that means is that though there is essentially very little political leverage in Congress to get a climate bill, precisely because of Republican recalcitrance, it is the threat of unilateral action that now has some Republicans and some lobbyists on the Hill scurrying to cobble together something in Congress, because they are very worried about the President following through on that promise.”