Category: Renewables – Politics
Steady Erosion of Civil Liberties Is a Real Challenge for “The Land of the Free”
| January 16, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Journalist Chris Hedges’ op-ed “Why I’m Suing Barack Obama” provides the rationale behind his use of the U.S. court system to challenge Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, questioning the legality of the Authorization for Use of Military Force as embedded in the latest version of the National Defense Authorization Act. In it he writes:
The act authorizes the military in Title X, Subtitle D, entitled “Counter-Terrorism,” for the first time in more than 200 years, to carry out domestic policing. With this bill, which will take effect March 3, the military can indefinitely detain without trial any U.S. citizen deemed to be a terrorist or an accessory to terrorism. And suspects can be shipped by the military to our offshore penal colony in Guantanamo Bay and kept there until “the end of hostilities.” It is a catastrophic blow to civil liberties.
A catastrophic blow indeed. Read More
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GOP Candidates Bashing the EPA
| January 11, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Here’s an article from the New York Times, a bit out of date, but still fiercely relevant: Bashing E.P.A. Is New Theme in G.O.P. Race, pointing out that Newt Gingrich wants to padlock the E.P.A.’s doors, and Rick Perry wants to impose an immediate moratorium on environmental regulation. Yet David Jenkins, speaking for Republicans for Environmental Protection says, “Not only are these positions irresponsible, they’re politically problematic.”
You have that right, Mr. Jenkins. There may be a great deal of truth in H. L. Mencken’s famous line: “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” But we’re not so brain-dead that we’ll vote for a return to the days of unfettered garbage-dumping into our skies and oceans.
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Why Trillions of Dollars of Private Capital Has So Little Interest in Clean Energy
| January 11, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Michael Klare is a documentarian from Amherst, whose film “Blood and Oil” shows that from World War II on, every single administration has acknowledged that our wars are always fought over oil.
His piece here focuses on the military, but touches heavily on environmentalism and clean energy. He writes:
Last week, the president made a rare appearance at the Pentagon to unveil a new strategic plan for U.S. military policy (and so spending) over the next decade…..Obama was evidently the first president to offer remarks from a podium in the Pentagon press room. He made the point himself — “I understand this is the first time a president has done this. It’s a pretty nice room. (Laughter)” — and it was duly noted in the media. Yet no one thought to make anything of it, even though it tells us so much about our American world.
After all, when was the last time the president appeared at a podium at the Environmental Protection Agency Read More
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U.S. Response to Climate Change Divided Across Party Lines
| January 9, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Steve Cohen, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of Columbia University’s Earth Institute sees the climate change issue in much the same way we tend to here at 2GreenEnergy: shamefully divided across party lines – yet not hopeless. On his blog at the Huffington Post, Cohen points out that Republicans really have changed their minds on the legitimacy of climate change. He comes away, however, on an upbeat: “Young people understand the challenges of global sustainability and I am convinced that the situation is far from hopeless.” Read More
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Clean Energy May Be Right Around the Corner
| January 6, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
A number of folks commenting on my piece The New Living Large Is Living Small noted that perhaps we need a precipitating event to pull the world together, and teach us once again how to live with one another. But how realistic is this? While I believe that there is a huge probability that we’ll have even greater calamities in the next decade, wouldn’t the events of the last few years have precipitated such an Age of Aquarius if it were even a remote possibility? I would have hoped that things like the BP oil spill, Fukushima, the criminality that led to (and continues on past) the 2008 financial collapse, or the skyrocketing number of extreme weather events of the last few years could have done the trick.
Others commented that we should expect a leader to rise up and do the right thing. Sorry for the cynicism, I don’t see that either. Read More
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Environmentalist Bill McKibben: Get Angry at Corruption in Congress
| January 5, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Here’s environmentalist Bill McKibben at his best, pointing out that we should shelve the resentment and cynicism that we feel for corruption in Congress, and start to show how we truly feel: ANGRY. He writes, “We’ve reached the point where we’re unfazed by things that should shake us to the core.”
According to James Hansen, the government’s premier climate scientist, tapping Canada’s tar sands for the Keystone pipeline would, in the end, essentially mean “game over for the climate.” So how could Speaker of the House John Boehner insist that the Keystone approval decision be speeded up? Well, he’s gotten $1,111,080 from the fossil-fuel industry during his tenure. His Senate counterpart Mitch McConnell, who shepherded the bill through his chamber, has raked in $1,277,208 in the course of his tenure in Washington.
McKibben refers to cynicism as “a sucker’s game.” Until we demonstrate how truly outraged we are, we’ll get exactly the degree of change we deserve: none. As Frederick Douglass reminds us, “Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.”
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How Thrilled Would Ben Franklin Be With What We’ve Done To Our Democratic Republic?
| December 22, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
My family and I are out of here tomorrow morning, and back on the 27th. It’s our annual pilgrimage back to Philadelphia, cradle of the Union – ironic to be sure, given my recent writing on how sadly corrupt has become the democracy we so treasure.
I’ll be driving my rent-a-car north from the airport just east of the Liberty Bell when I’ll hear Ben Franklin calling through the centuries:
The bravest and brightest of us here in the late Eighteenth Century worked hard to establish a democratic republic for your liberty and prosperity. We struggled mightily amongst ourselves for quite a while to draft and approve a Constitution that we thought would protect you forever from greedy criminals. Yes, we knew that there would be a never-ending procession of ruthless and increasingly powerful people who we knew would never tire in their attempts to exploit this freedom, at the expense of turning mankind back in the direction of the Dark Ages, rather than forward to even greater lights of wisdom, justice, and happiness for all.
Until recently, I believed that we had succeeded, but now it appears we fell short. Looks like that Citizens United decision was the nail in the coffin. I still can’t believe that happened. If you can’t overturn that somehow, it looks like I will have failed you. Sorry. Over and out.
Having said that, there is hope. And it lies in you and me. Let’s never give up. Stand up for what you believe. Do it for yourself, your countrymen, for Ben.
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Renewable Energy’s Connection to Peace and Freedom
| December 21, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
During the holiday season, we talk a great deal about peace: world peace, the Prince of Peace, and so forth — all good things. But isn’t it a shame that, in large measure, we trot these concepts out at Christmas, only to go back to beating the holy hell out of one another during the balance of the year?
For a moment, ponder the connection between world peace and renewable energy. At first, this may sound like a concept from the 1960s. But in truth, our dependence on oil empowers tyranny all around the world Read More
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News from the U.S. — Federal Government Takes Final Step to Suspend Constitution
| December 20, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Here’s a piece of U.S. legislation that is unimaginably unAmerican: the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012, Section 1031 which provides broad authority for the federal government to use the military in domestic operations in order to detain Americans indefinitely and without trial. Such a move nullifies the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as well as the natural rights of Americans. Read More
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Clean Energy Cheap Versus Dirty Energy Expensive
| December 17, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Predictably, the international climate talks in Durban, South Africa yielded little if any real progress, but some truly wonderful rhetoric. In his article Australia Wants Clean Energy Cheap Rather Than Dirty Energy Expensive, Alex Trembath quotes this piece in the Canberra Times:
Our goal should be to create a world with abundant, clean and cheap energy for all. This is an objective that reconciles progress and planet. This is a challenge that can bring rich and poor countries together in a common goal. If we are to address climate change, we must turn to humanity’s familiar benefactor – technological innovation – and apply it to developing better clean energy.
ZZZzzzzzz. Oh, sorry, must have dozed off there. Read More
