Obama’s Approval Ratings — and Energy
Below is a link to a piece I wrote recently for Renewable Energy World in which I attempt to explain President Obama’s falling approval ratings. In it, I point out that, although his administration has been hamstrung with compromises from Congress whose end products are garbled, wrong-headed trash that wind up pleasing no one, he has been far more effective than its predecessors in supporting the development of clean energy.
A great example is the BLM (the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management), which rubber-stamped thousands of leases of public land for the oil companies while putting a moratorium on solar thermal applications just a few years ago. Now, they’re making a huge change in its position. Driven by the desire to double clean energy capacity in two to three years, the BLM is rolling out a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement on 24 solar energy study areas, amounting to about 700,000 acres of land.
Those with any sense of decency are nauseated by the corruption in Washington, by the oil companies’ 7000 lobbyists extorting support from our elected leaders. Yet, even with all that overt criminality, it appears that advocates for clean energy are making progress.
Here’s a link to the article: Obama’s Approval Ratings — and Energy.
Mr. Shields is right on the money. Obama has been a great disappointment to many of his supporters. The Democratic way seems to be like the bible story; if you give a man a fish, they will be hungry tomorrow, if you teach a man to fish they will be fed for a lifetime. The Democratics are handing out fish everyday. They like because it makes them seem powerful. How much of the ARRA money went into sustainable jobs? I know we tried to get some low interest loans to retrain out of work auto workers to build our electric car, but were not even considered.
We are spending our tax dollars on fixing roads, which is not sustainable because when the Fed’s run out of money, so do the jobs. Same for renewable energy tax credits. It is good to do renewable energy, but the business can not be sustained without them.
So where does this leave us? The cowards and spineless politicians we elected will not create an energy policy for this country. Instead they are hiding behind cap and trade which is not a good idea. People use and waste energy in this country, they believe in cheap energy and don’t really care that over 70% of our oil they use in their cars is imported. This is like a drug addiction and cap and trade does not break people’s habits. How did we curb cigarette smoking? We have taxed the hell out of cigarettes. Cap and trade is like taxing the cigarette compaines for air pollution and making the smoker pay for it. It is too disconnected.
People need a tax on carbon based energy. Whether it is gas or coal. This will be hard but the end result is very positive for today and tomorrow. Now, alternative energy is lower cost than status-quo. This will create a sustainable alternative energy business that does not need our tax dollars. It will teach us how to use energy intelligently & sustainably (to fish) for a life time.
I am voting out every incumbent politican this Nov. We need new government leadership and make sure we get rid of the current lawyer based government. We lead a government that is a cross section of America, not a group supported by the legal lobbyists. We need Americans who consider it a privlage to serve, not who want a life long job.
Hi Craig,
Nuclear energy giants and their congressional lobbyists are pushing for a “so say one, so say all” policy instead of a win win situation where the ordinary people can enjoy an environment free from Greenhouse gases and other pollutants. In order for president Obama to make significant development in the promotion of alternative energy, there must be a level playing playing field where all, and not a handful few can decide the fate of billions of people of this global village. Let president Obama be man enough to introduce a bill to decommission all of America’s nuclear energy sites and have them replaced with Alternative Energy options. This, in itself, is the “Real Change” we all sought to achieve. It is no gainsaying that the United States is the leader and other countries of the world are the followers. Whenever the US make such move, other countries are bound to follow suit.