OPINION: Barack Obama Embraces Earth

By Broadside Staff Writer John Koblan

President Barack Obama recently set new policies to curb greenhouse gas emissions and improve fuel efficiency standards. These policies strongly contrast those set forth in the Bush administration’s Energy Policy Act of 2005, which Washington, D.C.-based public interest group, Public Citizen, called an $842 million “giveaway” to oil refineries.

In 2000, Exxon Mobil Corporation gave $1.2 million to Bush’s campaign, and Chevron gave $780,000. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was a Chevron Director from 1991 to 2001. It’s no coincidence, folks. The sleazy political paybacks of the Bush administration are over. The American people voted for change and Obama, as our new president, symbolizes that change. Obama wants every car made in 2011 to get at least 35 miles per gallon. He is also more open to allowing states to take the lead on the climate crisis.

“President Obama will direct federal regulators on Monday [January 26] to move swiftly on an application by California and 13 other states to set strict automobile emission and fuel efficiency standards,” said two administration officials. The president will also instruct the agency to begin enforcing a 2007 national fuel efficiency standard law that the Bush administration refused to act on. The partnership between Obama and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is significant. The federal government will no longer stand in the way of states that want tougher emissions regulations.

“The federal government must work with, not against, states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Obama. “The days of doing nothing are over.”

Obama’s environmental plan is bold. It is also a cannonball shot against the oil companies who have controlled Washington for the past eight years. Our president realizes that the days of doing nothing have put our planet in peril. Obama sees the link between environmental protection and national security.

The visionary partnership between Schwarzenegger and Obama will save this country and our planet. It is the future. Do you want to work with Obama and Schwarzenegger for a better America and world? Or do you want to be left in the past?