I looked over the Energy Plan at barackobama.com today, and I can’t help but feel hot and cold about it.
His plan unquestionably aims to give assistance to middle class and low income households, which is certainly imperative at this point in time….and a exhilarating change from the current administration. However, being someone who is legitimately concerned for the environment, I have to put my foot down and say that his plan does not dis-include practices that may be highly detrimental to this planet, and contains propositions calling for relatively unsustainable energy procurement and management. The following is my summary of his Energy Plan, approached and illuminated by the way of an ecological eye… and with commentary, of course.
Firstly Barack Obama promises to provide short term relief to American families by swapping light oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for heavy crude oil to help bring down gas prices. He plans to crack down on excessive energy speculation by closing market loopholes to prevent traders from unfairly increasing their own profits…all of this is a good way to help Americans save money, but I wouldn’t necessarily label this part of his plan “green”.
He also assures that an Obama-Biden administration will help to prevent delays to drilling in the Bakken hale formation, the Barnett shale formation, and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, and also will require oil companies to develop the 68 million acres of land which they have leased but are not yet drilling on. This will help to secure profits within American borders, but obviously carries substantial environmental costs.
The phoniest part of his energy plan is located in the “Create Millions of New Jobs” section, where he divulges his plan to develop and deploy clean coal technology. “Clean” coal production is highly criticized by most environmental groups (including the Sierra Club andPembina Institute) and by and large is dismissed as a coal industry marketing ploy to create false hype. The “cleaning” is performed by scrubbers – which are control devices that can be used to remove some particulates and/or gases from industrial exhaust streams. The problem is that while scrubbers will remove some particles, (especially those that cause smog) they will do nothing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. Clean coal is more often than not regarded as a political sham, and I was most disappointed when I learned that Obama included it as part of his energy plan.
The good news is that he also plans to increase fuel economy standards by 4% per year while providing $4 billion for domestic automakers to retool their manufacturing facilities in America. He resolves to establish a national low carbon fuel standard by reducing the carbon in our fuels by 10% by 2020, and will also require 60 billion gallons of advancedbiofuels to be phased into our fuel supply by 2030. His plans to weatherize one million low-income homes each year over the course of the next ten years is especially thrilling, and in addition he ensures that ten percent of our electricity will come from renewable sources by 2012.
Perhaps the most promising environmental policy within the Obama-Biden plan is the cap-and-trade approach to air pollution credits. It will require the credits be auctioned, with the proceeds funding habitat protections, rebates for middle to low income families, and securing a “clean energy future”.
All in all I think Obama will prove to be a dignified and evenhanded representative of the American people, and I (like many) am hopeful of a propitious future for this country. I am proud to have him serve as our instrument for global communication, and I suspect he will do his best to repair some of the damage this nation has bestowed upon other nations, and it’s own people.
I hope that he will listen to the concerned scientists of the world too….and the letter-writing citizens! Maybe if enough people speak up in defense of the environment, we’ll be able to catch enough political attention to persuade Obama that major adjustments need be executed in U.S. industry standards.