Despite the fact that I did not support President Obama when he was a presidential candidate four years ago, I became one of the millions of Americans who threw their support behind the president-elect in the hope that he would lead us for the next four years towards prosperity. I had high hopes that he would create a strong energy policy, one based on decreasing foreign oil dependence and revitalizing the green energy movement within America.
Four years later however, I am disappointed with the President’s effort in pushing for climate change legislation and his lackluster attempts to make good on many campaign promises. As a result, I see a presidential candidate that is even less appealing now than he was four years ago.
Going into the 2008 election, climate change was a core issue that served to divide Americans. While on the campaign trail, Barrack Obama promised to curb climate change. One promise he made to Americans was a cap and trade program that he claimed would cut carbon emissions 80 percent by the year 2050.
As of today however, cap and trade does not exist. Instead of pressuring Congress to pass this program, he shrugged it off, saying “cap and trade was just one way of skinning the cat. It was not the only way… It was a means, not an end. And I’m going to be looking for other means to address this problem.” The other means to mitigate climate change that President Obama spoke about have to this day failed to materialize.
The Environmental Protection Agency, which is responsible for conducting cleanups at Superfund sites throughout the nation, reported that a lack of funds was preventing it from restoring polluted sites. Obama responded by promising to resurrect a tax on chemical and oil companies that would help pay for these cleanup programs. This tax had existed over 30 years ago, but expired in 1995.
By 2003, the Superfund budget was dry, meaning money had to be siphoned from taxpayer’s pockets. When in office, Obama seemed to lack any motivation to push the tax through a resistant Congress to make good on his campaign promise. Because of this, only 19 sites were remediated by the EPA in 2009, as compared to 89 sites in 1999. While a new bill is in the works to create such a tax, the Superfund tax has simply become a new campaign promise for the 2012 election cycle.
As President Obama took office four years ago, he promised to create an energy plan that would decrease the nation’s reliance upon foreign oil. In his acceptance speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, his claim that America is less dependent upon foreign oil today than at any other time in the last two decades, and that we have since cut our imports by over one million barrels a day in the last year is false. According to the Energy Information Agency, Americans imported 303.5 million barrels of oil in February of this year, as compared to February of 1992 when the country imported 198 million barrels.
When you compare oil import data from the last two years, it is misleading to say we have cut imports by one million barrels a day. For example, in June of this year, Americans imported only half a million barrels less per day as compared to 2011. As well, it is inconclusive whether or not a decline in imports is due to the President’s energy policies or the weak economy driving down demand.
President Obama promised to create 600,000 jobs, yet has neglected to mention the industries that would generate these jobs (think fracking and coal). Obama’s endorsement of industries that increase pollution and climate change demonstrates how Obama is not as green as he makes himself out to be.
Obama has failed to push environmental causes through Congress. He has failed to make good on campaign promises regarding the environment. He has also failed to promote the green energy movement, bowing instead to the oil and gas industry that pollutes our nation. Because of these failures in the current term, I question Obama’s ability to keep the promises he is making for his second term.
-Roy Apostle is a middler Environmental Science major.
