Joshua Frank - Obama's Biggest Environmental 'Victory' Was Really a Big Win for Gas Drillers
April 13, 2012 Greenhouse gas emissions are hot news these days -- especially during election season when candidates, at least those who claim to believe in climate science, say they are actually going to do something about the biggest environmental crisis facing our little blue planet: global warming.
In early March, while campaigning in New Hampshire, Obama vowed to end $4 billion in Big Oil and Gas subsidies. "You can either stand up for the oil companies, or you can stand up for the American people," Obama said to an applauding audience. "You can keep subsidizing a fossil fuel that's been getting taxpayer dollars for a century, or you can place your bets on a clean-energy future."
That sounds dandy, but ending subsidies to polluters is only half the battle, and Obama's idea of a "clean-energy future" is tenuous at best. In an attempt to round up the green vote, President Obama is trumpeting his half-hearted attempt to put the breaks on global warming by tapping energy sources here at home and regulating the industry that's doing most of the damage. Only days after the president announced he was looking to fast-track the southern portion of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, his administration released the first-ever federal standards to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants.
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