Obama claimed to be boldly taking on the climate change
deniers in Congress, by issuing a presidential memo instructing the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to use Clean Air laws to cap greenhouse
gas emissions.
But there's little to get excited about here, because the
level of the cap is unstated. It won't be announced until next year for
possible implementation in 2015. No doubt the level will still be mired in
political and legal battles long after Obama has left the White House.
Campaigners are convinced this is a sleazy trade-off to
silence opposition to Keystone 2.
And it seems to be working, with the Sierra Club, one of the
US 's
biggest environmental organisations and a key member of the anti-Keystone
campaign, issuing a gushing call on its members to "thank the
President".
But what Obama actually said was "climate change
issues" will be "relevant" to the decision on the pipeline
carrying heavy crude tar sand products from Canada
to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico . Relevant
maybe, but not decisive. As Tom Steyer, former hedge fund investor turned
environmental activist said, curbing emissions will be meaningless if Keystone
goes ahead.
Obama made much of the fact that the US is now the
world's biggest gas producer. He failed to point out that this "natural
gas" (sounds nice doesn't it?) mostly comes from fracking. Across the US , communities
are being destroyed by this process, which pollutes water supplies and makes
people ill. But he mentioned none of that.
Obama claimed the fact that the US is once again building nuclear
power stations as a positive. But given that there are already some 65,000 tons
of dangerous nuclear waste in temporary storage throughout the US , it is hard
to see how this can be a good thing!
He used this speech to herald federal support for stepping
up gas exports, but isn't that just what the Thatcher government did and look
where it got the UK .
The North Sea gas supplies are all gone,
burned up or sold cheap on the world market.
Energy supply relies on Russian imports, pushing prices
through the roof. No wonder the state is so excited about shale gas as an
alternative. A new survey by the British Geological survey showing there is a
greater quantity of shale gas than was previously thought is being presented as
some wonderful bonanza.
The boom in unconventional oil and gas is a mark of how
desperate governments are to keep the fossil fuel market stable. The question
is, do we want to pay the price in pollution and health risks? The British and
US governments say yes, but then they would, wouldn't they?
Obama pointed out that since 2006 the US has made the
world's biggest emissions reductions. But just as in the UK , most of
this was achieved by switching power stations to natural gas.
He also claimed natural gas is a 'transition fuel' whilst
the economy switches to renewables but that will turn out to be as much of a
fraud as here in the UK where renewables still amount to just 7% of the UK
energy mix. In fact the only fuel that increased its share in 2012 was coal!
What Obama described was a fantasy climate change policy. It
delivers big profits, needs no significant public investment, pushes
fundamental change far in the future and requires no change in behaviour by
companies. This may be the corporate government's dream scenario but for the
rest of us, it's a total nightmare.
Penny Cole
Environment editor
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