ObamaEnvironmentDCD
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The document discusses President Obama's environmental legacy and strategy. It notes that while no major environmental laws were passed under Obama, he was able to use existing laws like the Clean Air Act to issue landmark regulations reducing air pollution. Obama leaves office with one of the most aggressive environmental legacies despite opposition from critics calling his actions "regulatory overreach." The document also suggests Obama's strategy reflects making the most progress possible given political realities and constraints.
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ObamaEnvironmentDCD
- 1. Environment & Energy Under Obama POLITICS, POLICY AND POSSIBILITIES EAST OF EDEN
- 2. There is a Kansas character, and its roots are found in the midwestern rural traditions of hard work, struggle in the face of adversity, frugality, practicality, individualism, democracy, and environmental irresponsibility. Leo E. Olivia, ‘Kansas: A Hard Land in the Heartland” (1988)
- 3. “The Environment” AS OPPOSED TO… “The Economy”? “Humanity”? “Technology”? “The Built Environment”? “Energy”? “Agriculture”? “Public Health”? RELATIVE TO… “political possibility”? “political history”? “the financial cost”? “the identifiable need”? “the impacts”? “doing nothing”? “business as usual”?
- 5. National Democratic Party / Organizing For Action 2012
- 6. Center for American Progress Jan. 9, 2013 https://www.americanprogress. org/issues/green/report/2013/0 1/09/49187/president-‐obamas-‐ clean-‐energy-‐progress-‐how-‐the-‐ top-‐10-‐energy-‐priorities-‐fared-‐ during-‐his-‐first-‐term/
- 7. Center for American Progress Jan. 17, 2013 https://www.americanprogress. org/issues/green/report/2013/0 1/17/49979/building-‐on-‐ president-‐obamas-‐clean-‐energy-‐ successes/
- 8. Other sample sources: DAILY KOS 11/23/13 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/23/12 57892/-‐Obama-‐accomplishments LIBERALS UNITE 7/19/12 http://samuel-‐warde.com/2012/07/obamas-‐ conservation-‐and-‐green-‐energy-‐ accomplishments/
- 9. Coral Davenport recently observed in the New York Times that Obama will likely "leave office with the most aggressive, far-‐reaching environmental legacy of any occupant of the White House" even though "it is very possible that not a single major environmental law will have passed during his two terms in Washington." The Clean Air Act of 1970 simply turns out to be a very powerful tool crafted by very ambitious legislators, who wanted to make sure future administrations would be able to address not-‐ yet-‐foreseen environmental problems. He's used that law to issue a "series of landmark regulations on air pollution, from soot to smog, to mercury and planet-‐warming carbon dioxide." The New York Times, 11/26/14, Obama Builds Environmental Legacy with 1970 Law by Coral Davenport
- 11. “Obama’s Environmental Legacy?” C2E2 Strategies, LLC 3
- 12. “The Obama Strategy?” Reflects how Federal environmental policy was intended to be developed and deployed. Reflects what is political possible in the current cultural and political reality. Perhaps reflects Obama’s priorities and/or focus for policy and political authority, his leadership style and core competency, and/or his political sensibility. Perhaps the difficult reality is that the energy and environmental challenges we face are essentially unprecedented in scope, intensity, convergence, and integration – all policies to date have been insufficient as measured against the challenges they are meant to address. Perhaps this is not an “Obama” problem or an “Obama” shortcoming, but a “human” and “industrial” problem.
- 13. And let us not forget the opposition… Groundhog Days:Utilities Wrong Again About Pollution Safeguard Costs By Daniel J. Weiss and Miranda Peterson March 19, 2014, Center for American Progress. Government Regulation: Costs Lower, Benefits Greater Than Industry Estimates, May 26, 2015 Clean Energy Initiative Fact Sheet, PEW Charitable Trusts.
- 14. …the other priorities… WNY Labor Today, July 1, 2012.
- 15. …the actual results… Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act: Second Prospective Study, 1990-‐2020, US EPA, updated April 2011. Six Principal Pollutants: The Latest Findings on Air Quality, US EPA, 2008.
- 16. …or what’s at stake. 2014 On Track to be the Hottest Year on Record by Andrea Thompson, Climate Central, 9/18/14. An Excellent Return on Investment: Protecting Human Health Through the Clean Air Act, Russell Meyer, Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, 3/3/11.
- 17. The Assault on EPA Current economic and political climate are being used as cover for an unprecedented assault upon public health and environmental protections EPA and implementation of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts coincide with extraordinary growth in U.S. GDP and economic growth, as well as quality of life Opposition to carbon & climate change regs = Trojan horse to roll back 40 years of health and enviro protections “Obama regulations” misleading -‐ decades of bi-‐partisan development Without EPA regulatory authority, U.S. transition to a clean energy economy is impossible, certainly in time to prevent incalculable climate, health, and environmental damage ݺߣ from a November 2011 presentation deck.