There is nothing this president likes to do more than slap the term "historic" on anything he does. Case in point; a climate change emissions agreement the US signed with China yesterday. The agreement is certainly ambitious, with stringent emission reduction goals for the US by 2025 and a brake put on Chinese emissions by 2030. The problem, as David Stout of Time points out, is that the goals are nearly impossible to reach: Under the deal, the U.S. must slash carbon emissions by 26% to 28% below 2005 levels by 2025, and China must start reigning in its release of greenhouse gases nationwide. Based on the initiative, China needs to hit peak CO2 emissions by 2030. In addition, China, which has long relied on coal to fuel its unprecedented economic growth, also promised to rapidly increase the country’s reliance on nonfossil fuels in primary energy consumption. By 2030, Beijing is aiming to have 20% of the country’s energy needs supplied by...(Read Full Post)