President Obama made two seemingly contradictory energy policy decisions on two consecutive days. First, he broke yet another campaign promise by adopting Sarah Palin’s mantra of “drill, baby drill” by allowing oil drilling off the coast of Virginia. Whether or not this is consistent with the desire to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels, it virtually guarantees additional pollution in this environmentally sensitive area. So once again, as in the health care deliberations, the President gave in to the Republicans even before the debate started. It will be interesting to see how right wing hate radio puts its incessant anti-Obama spin on this.
On the flip side, the President announced improved fuel efficiency standards that will be required of automobile manufacturers after 2016. Sadly, this regulation was ignored by the previous president. The oil and gas lobbyists are already mobilizing against this initiative. Does that make them “pro-pollution” in gopspeak? However, this is a long-overdue impetus for American technology to recapture the lead in clean automobile technology.
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