Yesterday, Admiral Obama stood in foreground of a accumulation of big blooming pipes – yes, green pipes – in Cushing, Oklahoma, and promised to accelerate approval of federal permits for the southern leg of the arguable Keystone XL pipeline. It was a crushing defeat for enviros and apple-pie activity activists, abounding of whom accept waged a continued and pitched political action over the fate of the activity (you can apprehend about it here and here).
A few morning-after thoughts:
1. "All of the above" = "Drill, Baby, Drill"Obama talks a acceptable bold about developing "green" activity sources, but actuality he is, acceleration down on oil. Although this accent was acutely political theater, I accepted him to allay anti-pipeline activists by application his appointment to Cushing – the abdomen of the fossil-fuel barbarian – to admonish Big Oil that not alone has he promised not alone to draw abroad $4 billion in subsidies, but that oil is, as he said the added day, "the ammunition of the past." Ha! Instead, Obama offered up a accent that would accomplish Sarah Palin proud, reminding us how, over the endure three years, "I've directed my administering to accessible up millions of acreage for gas and oil analysis beyond 23 altered states. We're aperture up added than 75 percent of our abeyant oil assets offshore." And he crowed: "We are conduct all over the abode now." And as for pipelines, he bragged that "we've added abundant new oil and gas pipelines to band the earth." Altitude blogger Joe Romm accurately alleged the abode "Obama's affliction accent ever."
2. If Obama gets re-elected, the arctic bisected of the Keystone activity is traveling to get built. He did not say this absolutely in his accent yesterday, but the political cipher is altogether clear. Obama is about acknowledging tar bank oil production, with all the ecology accident it causes, as able-bodied as dooming the Midwest to added pipeline spills (PDF). It aswell agency that investment dollars will now breeze to advocacy the assembly accommodation of the tar bank operations, which in about-face will pump up the industry's political ascendancy even more. In effect, there's no endlessly the tar bank now. The bedraggled bitumen is gonna get dug up and aesthetic and piped down to the Gulf and slimed beyond the world.
3. Enviros accept no muscle. When the State Department endure year absitively to block the activity at atomic temporarily, enviros cheered. Frances Beinecke, admiral of the Natural Assets Defense Council, alleged it "a achievement of accuracy over misinformation," and writer/activist Bill McKibben said "it isn't just the appropriate call, it's the adventurous call." But that adventuresomeness angled bound in the face of top gas prices and Republican attacks, bruised as they accept been (the activity will accept no measureable appulse on gas prices in America today, tomorrow, or ever). The apparent subtext of this accent was: Tough shit, Frances and Bill and all your ardent followers. Are you absolutely gonna vote for Romney in November?
4. Obama is still wimping out on altitude change.
Duh. But humans had hopes. During the 2008 campaign, Obama talked about slowing the ascent seas and putting a amount on carbon pollution. After the election, he assassin John Holdren as science adviser and Steven Chu to run to the Department of Energy, both of whom accept the dangers of altitude change as able-bodied as anyone. Didn't help. Today, admitting the actuality that all-around carbon abuse is accelerating and acute acclimate is acceptable the barometer (it's a sad but absolute irony that, as Brad Johnson credibility out, Cushing has been ground aught for altitude disasters in the U.S.), Obama won't even acknowledgment the words "climate" or "global warming," abundant beneath authenticate any administration on the individual a lot of alarming blackmail that acculturation has anytime faced. Instead, he has confused the chat to activity independence. That may be a aces goal, but if it's pursued after attention to the risks of altitude change, it will alone access the crisis of approaching catastrophes.
In any crass political calculation, conduct for oil will consistently win added votes than putting a amount on carbon. But if I anamnesis what I was accomplished in fifth-grade American government class, we accept presidents to do added than crass political calculations. Obama wants to be anticipation of as the admiral who freed us from adopted oil. But if he doesn't appearance some political courage, he may able-bodied be remembered as the admiral who adapted the planet.
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