Obama's environmental to-do list
Sun, Nov 23 2008 at 2:20 PM EST
Read more: GLOBAL WARMING, OBAMA
Photo: Patrick Dentler/Flickr President-elect Barack Obama has suggested energy independence is his top priority after stabilizing the economy, thus encouraging a sense of optimism for a new direction in U.S. energy legislation. After eight years of misguided policies, however, Obama will face some of the most crucial environmental and energy challenges to date, including those related to climate change, energy security, addressing weakened regulations, renewable energy technologies and growing the green economy. The following are seven suggestions for how the new administration might tackle the issues that lie ahead, and help guarantee a sustainable future for the country:
1) Overhaul the EPA
The official responsibility of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect human health and safeguard the natural environment. But it seems that for the last eight years it's been doing everything but that -- from increasing ozone limits to allowing rocket fuel in our drinking water to preventing states from setting emissions caps to censoring scientific testimonies on the dangers of global warming. Across-the-board policies of political interference in the agency's workings has left it little more than a weakened arm of the Bush administration's reckless agenda of deregulation and loosened environmental standards.
Advice for the Obama administration? Put the EPA's $7.2 billion dollar budget and thousands of employees to good use by letting it get back to what it's supposed to be able to do best. Short-term objectives should include appointing a responsible head with high-minded goals and practical expertise in environmental legislation and policy application. Although environmental champion Al Gore would clearly be the first choice, Robert Sussman doesn't seem to be a bad second as former deputy administrator of the EPA during Clinton's first term, and a member of the board of directors of the Environmental Law Institute. The long-term goals are seemingly endless, but lowering the federal cap on vehicle emissions is one good place to start. Oil prices might be down for now, but let's not forget that 33 percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions come from automobiles.
2) Raise the bar on food and drug standards
The FDA and the USDA are in serious need of a patch-up. Gather 'round the campfire, if you dare, and check out some of these ghoulish tales on how cloned animals are being allowed to wriggle their way into the food chain, and how blanket immunities may be doled out to big pharmaceutical companies whose FDA-approved drugs cause severe side effects or worse. Even organic foods aren't safe anymore, with many organic farmers and advocacy groups calling for the reverse of weakened quality standards, created at the behest of agro-corps who want to cash in on the ever-growing demand for safer and healthier foods.
The new administration should strengthen FDA and USDA oversight and make the protection of public welfare their top priority. More regulation on food and drug safety are paramount. Perhaps they might take a few pages from the playbook of the EU's European Food Safety Authority, which holds comparatively high standards for food, animal and plant health for those products produced within the European Union, as well as imports.
3) Expand the Green Jobs Act
The Green Jobs Act was passed in 2007 as part of the Energy Independence and Security Bill, and will make $120 million available to train 35,000 folks in need in the green energy sector. How about doubling that number, Mr. President-elect? If we can find $700 billion in the mattress to bail out the banking system, couldn't we conceivably find another $100 million to double the number of "green collar" workers in the United States. Urban youth and returning veterans get the job training they need in a growing industry that guarantees them future employment, and our economy gets a well-trained workforce in a growing renewable-energy sector. It's win-win for everyone.
4) Set an example for climate change on the international stage
America set an example for the rest of the world by breaking the racial barrier to the highest office in the land. Why stop there? Let's move out of our "global outlier" status on issues of climate change and starting forging a reputation of climate leadership in the international community. A new international environmental treaty summit ala the Kyoto Protocol is in the works for December 2009. The proposed cap-and-trade system for industry carbon emissions is just one way the United States can work toward meeting a collective global agreement on lowering greenhouse gas emissions.
5) Rethink the push for "clean" coal technology
Obama has talked a lot about clean coal technology as part of his solution to our growing energy concerns, but how clean is clean coal really? It's a general term used to describe how using coal as energy can be made more environmentally sound through methods such as washing off minerals and impurities, gasification, and carbon capture and storage. Yet many of these methods are far from safe, allowing for extracted impurities to end up in our drinking water. The run-off of sulphur and minerals from washing coal are put into waste piles, and when it rains, those impurities generally end up in rivers and streams. Also, a major obstacle to capture and storage methods is that sequestration technology has not been sufficiently developed for a mass-production scale. Carbon injections into the earth may impact water quality as well. For more on the myths and the facts of clean coal technology, click here.
If the Obama administration is really dedicated to a cleaner, greener energy policy, it should rethink the "clean" coal solution, and instead use taxpayer dollars to subsidize research and investment in wind, water and solar renewable-energy technologies.
6) Increase federal tax credits for energy efficiency
The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 was signed into law last month, and extends tax credits for energy-efficient home-improvement purchases (insulation, replacement windows, nonsolar water heaters, etc.). The maximum lifetime amount, however, is just $500 and can only be claimed for the years 2006, 2007 and 2009. The new administration should extend the credit to purchases made in 2008 and increase the lifetime maximum amount. The Center for American Progress suggests a $1,500 increase to a total of $2,000, and has also encouraged the Obama administration to advertise the tax credit to lower-income families to help them save on energy bills.
7) More hybrids, please!
Anything the Obama administration can do to get more hybrid cars on the road and more gas guzzlers off is a good step. Obama's suggested Health Care for Hybrids Act would allow automakers to receive federal assistance to help pay legacy health-care costs if they invest in creating more fuel-efficient cars. Another idea is to increase the federal tax credit on hybrid purchases and remove the tax-credit limit of 60,000 hybrids per carmaker.
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Shut up
Okay we get it;
just shut up barrack. you are a literal puppet. you will say anything someone tells u 2.
Point of Use is the Answer!
Job One has got to be moving from a monopolistic, remote combustion, lengthy transmission model to a local, point of use energy model where most structures become self-sufficient and generation/conservation solutions are heavily focused at the point of use. it also is better for jobs, economic stimulus (we get paid instead of Big Energy monopolies), property values and the planet.
there is NO excuse for killing off millions of acres of our beautiful, carbon-absorbing Mojave so a bunch of Big Energy Robber Barons can steal our public land, waste our tax dollars, emit huge amounts of GHGs, and hijack ratepayers, just to prevent US from getting solar panels on our roofs!
Big Solar and Big Wind are TOTAL SCAMS. Don't let the greenwashers fool you. we can EASILY generate 33%++ of our total energy needs on only a small percentage of previously developed land, including our own roofs. fight for feed in tariffs so we can get paid GOOD rates for generating more clean energy than we use, and saving our open spaces from these mercenaries. they are working in 40 countries, including Albania for Chrissakes. we are Sssssoooooooo behind!
wanted to also mention
that I believe there is going to be an explosion of new green jobs because of the stimulas package that will be coming in front of congress in January
Anything is a step in the right directions
I think that more tax breaks for hybrid owners are essential to helping more people in the middle class become environmentally friendly. I mean, we're on a budget, and we can't just run out and buy a hybrid, but if I knew that it would be worth my while financially in the long run, I might be able to swing it.
How about a Green New Deal?
the most exciting thing I"ve heard is a plan to restart our economy by creating green jobs....great idea! And these are jobs that can't be exported (after all, we can't have Germans creating windpower for us & then exporting it).
This is Obama's version of FDR's New Deal....only it's a Green New Deal!
AT least we have choices
the most exciting thing about this to me is that Obama is actually going to think about the environment...its been last on the list for so long that it's astonishing that we can actually debate it.
Articles like this are fun for people like me to read.
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