In its broadest sense, presidential control encompasses all the actions, in both word and deed,
whereby presidents "go it alone" to adopt policies in the absence of congressional
will to do so, and sometimes directly contrary to it. This dissertation studies how President
Obama used rhetorical and administrative tools of presidential control to address the "wicked
problem" of climate change. The "administrative presidency" and the "rhetorical
presidency" are familiar political science terms, but in the case of climate change policy,
they appear to be moving policymaking in a new and perhaps profound direction, which this study
refers to as "post-deliberative policymaking." Applying these two areas of scholarship
together to the wicked problem of climate change creates a helpful window through which to study
how President Obama utilized administrative and rhetorical strategies and tools during his presidency.
In particular, the study examines how he rhetorically constructed and rationalized his use of the
Environmental Protection Agency to implement federal climate change regulations via the federal Clean
Power Plan. Among the insights revealed by this analysis are how President Obama, in an age of acute
political partisanship and polarization, positioned the role of the bureaucracy, how he invoked
executive power, and what his actions reveal and may portend about executive views of democratic
institutions and norms. This dissertation analyzes President Obama's rhetoric through a study
of his speeches from 2009 through 2015 that explicitly or implicitly reference climate change,
greenhouse gases, and the Clean Power Plan, but also related topics, such as energy policy and
climate agreements.