Four More Years and Forecasts of Change

If anything can be said of President Obama’s recent State of the Union address, it may be that it left environmentally-minded individuals with more questions than answers. The president wasted little time out of the gates bringing up energy issues (Politico has his first mention of renewable energy and “carbon pollution” on the third of the speech’s 10 pages), giving mention to the environment before other, less important fringe issues like the housing market, international policy and gun control. The ordering of the President’s speech was hardly the only nod that environmentalism received that night; in the very next paragraph (now on page four) the President explicitly stated that “we must do more to combat climate change.” Not “we should.” Not “we can.” “We must.” What the President presented us with was an imperative, just in case anyone managed to miss it, as in something absolutely necessary or required. So now that we have a verbal commitment to stopping climate from our commander-in-chief, how sure can we be that he’ll follow through?

A look at the past four years may provide a little insight for shaping predictions. While President Obama received no lack of criticism for a first term that, quite frankly, left environmental interests underwhelmed, to say that nothing happened for the movement during his presidency couldn’t be farther from the truth. The International reports that since 2007, U.S. carbon emissions have dropped by about 13 percent. Executive Order 13514, signed in 2009, told federal agencies that they had to make greenhouse gas reductions a priority, as well as provided targets for fleet reductions in petroleum use, improvements in water efficiency, waste stream reform. New fuel economy standards will mandate an average efficiency of 35.5 miles-per-gallon in cars and trucks by 2016, which along with proposals to cut $46 billion in fuel industry subsidies from the 2012 fiscal budget, will help wean our country off of its addiction to fossil fuels. The Obama administration has outlined plans for expansion of solar and wind energy development, and the president has made a number of Cabinet-level appointments (most notably the recent naming of REI President/CEO Sally Jewell as his pick for Secretary of the Interior) that put people with commitments to the environment in positions of real influence. The list of small victories goes on.

Yet there are still elephants — and elephant carcasses — lingering in the Oval Office. Any prospects for a national cap-and-trade may have died in 2009. Passage of that darn Keystone XL pipeline is still on the table. We’re still subsidizing fossil fuel companies with tax dollars, and 350.org had an absolute field day with the discovery that Obama was reportedly seen in Florida golfing with oil executives while thousands gathered in the streets of Washington to protest tar sands development. If anything, the sighting serves as a reminder of the President’s humanity; to play the role of idealist leader of the free world, one needs to be a politician. It’s unfortunate that all the under-the-radar accomplishments seem overshadowed by grandiose showings of ball-dropping on headline issues, but if the President is anything at all, it’s a pragmatist. While some may argue that pragmatism isn’t really what we need right now if we’re to solve the climate crisis, anyone who has read this column in the past can probably figure out that I’m not of that camp.

The rest of the President’s State of the Union address offered pragmatic, collaborative proposals for securing America’s energy future. It also provided a commitment to rebuilding our country’s crumbling infrastructure, including the energy sector, which echoed the calls for synergistic development of economy and sustainability raised by Nature Conservancy CEO Mark Tercek in his talk at the College last Thursday evening. I believe the speech’s real home run, however, came at its end, as Obama provided his own interpretation of the American condition: “We are citizens … [That word] captures the enduring idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations; that our rights are wrapped up in the rights of others.” If our president is right, and that our future is contingent not only on our cooperation but our inherent interconnectedness, then we have no choice but to work to reestablish our nation’s connection to its ultimate shared resource. You’ve got me Mr. Obama — that’s change I can believe in. It’s the change I want to believe in.