Well, he mentioned the ‘c’ word this year. Last year President Obama raised more than a few eyebrows when he failed to talk about climate change during his State of the Union—something even his Republican predecessor George W. Bush, no friend of the environment, usually managed to work in. But last night Obama did cite climate change, albeit in a rather roundabout way, criticizing Congress for being too deeply divided to pass comprehensive climate legislation—or for that matter, the clean energy standard that was a central piece of his 2011 State of the Union speech. So the President does remember how to say the word “climate.”
But global warming was barely a passing reference in the speech—quite unlike something that surely has many greens worried: a call to increase domestic oil and gas production.
In Obama’s words:
It’s true that the President went onto admit that the U.S. has only 2% of proven global oil reserves, and that there’s no way to drill ourselves out of the economic doldrums. But still, coming less than a week after the Administration blocked the oil sands Keystone XL pipeline, it was striking to see a President who had come to office promising to make clean energy and climate change a top priority.
Certainly that’s how Greenpeace saw it in their reaction to the speech:
In fairness, Obama spent time on clean energy as well, calling for enough expedited development of wind and solar on public lands to power three million homes, and hyping the growing American battery industry:
Obama also reiterated a call to end subsidies for oil companies, and to pass the clean energy standard—which would mandate that a certain percentage of U.S. energy must come from clean sources, including natural gas—that he called for last year. That went nowhere, and it’s hard to see a better chance during an election year. But it does allow Obama to draw a distinction between his own energy policies and those of the Republicans—even if some greens think that there’s far too little daylight between them.
Republicans, though, would disagree, as Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels said in his official response to the speech:
Daniels is talking about the Keystone XL pipeline, which you can bet the Republicans will bring up over and over again in the year to come, as a symbol of Obama bending to green interests over domestic energy and domestic jobs. It’s not true that the Keystone pipeline would have employed tens of thousands of Americans—a few thousand is more like it—but the project does make for a good litmus test.
The Republican Party has been very clear about the fact that, as Daniels puts it, when it comes to domestic oil and gas projects, they’ll keep the green light on in the face of worries over local pollution or climate change. Obama—while he recognizes the economic value of the domestic oil and gas industry—isn’t so inclined, and his Environmental Protection Agency and Interior Department have been willing to curtail some of that development when public health and the environment comes under threat. Both sides want to lay claim to the “all of the above” energy strategy, but neither really does—Republicans have little interest in a government role to boost alternative energy, and Obama still has some red lines he won’t cross on fossil fuel development.
Greens are still less than happy with the President—and compared to the candidate he was in 2008, they have a right to be—but next November will still present a clear choice on where the country should head on energy and the environment. And at this point, I have no idea what the American public will choose.