By Paul Scicchitano

WASHINGTON – Backing away from an ambitious plan to require all US government agencies to commit to a 20 percent reduction in carbon emissions over the next decade, President Obama has instead left it up to each agency to develop its own targets around unspecified reductions within the massive federal bureaucracy.

A new Executive Order, which was signed by President Obama on October 5 but had not received a numerical designation as of press time, gives each agency 90 days to come up with a plan to develop a percentage reduction target for organization-wide reductions of scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions “in absolute terms” by fiscal year 2020 based on 2008 levels.

“Where appropriate, the target shall exclude direct emissions from excluded vehicles and equipment and from electric power produced and sold commercially to other parties in the course of regular business,” according to the Executive Order, which states that the targets will be subject to review and approval by the chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) in consultation with the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).