OBAMA SAYS he is tired of waiting for congress to act, so he is going to act alone to try to save the environment, and that, by anyone's standards, is a pretty tall order. Interesting to think that it was congress which created this opportunity for the president, through the EPA.
The EPA can issue restrictions and guidelines to americans pertaining to the environment, and the president can direct the EPA to do so. You wonder how much he can really do, however, and whether it will be enough.
It is starting to look as though elimination of carbon emissions, cleaning up the environment, and switching to sustainable energy sources are all achievable, but our resolve seems lacking. The united states keeps blocking, ignoring, or refusing to sign any and all international environmental agreement, obviously in deference to american corporate power.
The cap and trade idea, whereby any carbon producing company would be allowe a carbon limit, then assigned a carbon tax, with the power to buy and sell carbon credits, which is quite popular and effective in other countries, died in congress during the first six months of the obama administration, for the usual reason; american corporate power, and greed.
Obama's unilateral environmental initiatives are likely to be rather tame, probably consisting of little more than a requirement that corporations which cause a great deal of carbon pollution find a way to stop increasing their pollution, and maintain it at current levels, or reduce it. Guess which they'll choose?
Already the conservatives are screaming bloody murder, job killer, and the whole spew. But at least we appear well positioned for good old fashioned political drama, and who doesn't love that?
No comments:
Post a Comment