ENERGY: GREEN:
BROAD POLICY:

Established an Energy Partnership for the Americas. ref

Established the Biofuels Working Group to develop a comprehensive approach to alternative fuels. ref

Additional measures to advance clean energy/solar investments and job creation (ARRA). ref

Launched new Climate Service. ref

Worked toward deploying a global climate change research and monitoring system. ref

Implemented renewable fuels mandate of 36 billion gallons by 2022. ref

FUNDING:

More than doubled federal spending for research on clean fuels. ref
$60 billion in spending and tax incentives for renewable and clean energy. ref

Invested in all types of alternative energy. ref

Increased funding for the Environmental Protection Agency. ref

Invested $2 billion in solar power, hailed new jobs. ref , ref , ref

Established consumer tax credit for plug-in hybrid cars. ref , ref

Provided grants to encourage energy-efficient building codes. ref

Doubled funding for bicycling, walking projects ref , ref

(DOL) Dedicated $100 million in Energy Training Partnership green jobs training grants. ref

(DOL) Dedicated $150 million for Pathways Out of Poverty green jobs training grants. ref

$8 billion combined public/pvt funding committed to develop Smart Power Grid (part of ARRA). ref

Incentivized farmers to use more renewable energy and be more energy efficient. ref

TARGETED ACTIONS:

Purchased fuel efficient American-made fleet for the federal government. ref

Ordered 5,000 hybrids for federal fleet. ref

(NIST) Completed first release of Smart Grid framework. ref

Created job training programs in clean technologies for displaced workers. ref

Created Green Vet Initiative to promote environmental jobs for veterans. ref

Established program to convert manufacturing centers into clean technology leaders. ref

RESULTS:

First President to create detailed vision for clean energy economy. ref

Wind power growth up 39% due to government stimulus. ref

Study: Almost 5 million charging stations by 2015. ref

ENERGY: OLD
BROAD POLICY:

Ended the previous policy of not regulating and labeling carbon dioxide emissions. ref

Created Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage. ref

Set national standards for fuel economy and first ever greenhouse gas emission levels for passenger cars and light trucks. ref

Set smog limit: new strict proposal to replace Bush-era rule (EPA). ref ref

Regulated greenhouse gases for large industrial sources (EPA). ref

Raised fuel economy standards. ref

Required states to provide incentives for utilities to reduce energy consumption. ref

Allowed states to enact tougher fuel efficiency standards than federal standards. ref

Established Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future. ref

FUNDING:

Pledged more than $8 billion for new nuclear reactors. ref

Tax breaks to promote public transit. ref

TARGETED ACTIONS:

Dismantled the Minerals Management Service, cutting ties between industry and government. ref , ref

Reengaged in global warming and greenhouse gas emissions talks. ref , ref

Offered 17% U.S. emissions cuts at climate summit. ref

Pledged 28% cut in federal greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. ref

Expanded greenhouse gas reduction targets for Federal operations

-13% reduction from indirect sources by 2020. ref

(FTC) Toughened anti-greenwashing rules. ref

Instituted “Cash for Clunkers” to spur auto sales and promote fuel efficiency . ref , ref

Ordered inspections of mines with poor safety records. ref

Closed loophole that allowed drilling in Rockies without environmental review. ref

(EPA) Sharply limited mountaintop mining. ref

(EPA) Announced historic plans to regulate coal ash. ref

Required electric utilities to produce 20% of their electricity demand from renewable energy sources by 2020. ref

(EPA) Limited mercury emissions. ref ref

ENERGY:OIL
BROAD POLICY:

Introduced Oil Spill Recovery Bill to remove oil company liability cap. ref ref

Created offshore drilling safety review board. ref

Created new drilling agency with investigative arm. ref

Ended previous practice of having White House aides rewrite scientific and environmental rules, regulations and reports. ref

FUNDING:

Ordered $20 billion escrow fund by BP to reimburse lost incomes in Gulf. ref

Ordered $100 million to compensate those hurt by drilling moratorium. ref

TARGETED ACTIONS:

Dismantled the Minerals Management Service, cutting ties between industry and government. ref , ref

Mandated new safety rules for offshore drilling. ref

Opened civil and criminal investigations into Gulf oil spill. ref , ref
(Congress) Launched investigation into gas drilling practices. ref

Established the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. ref

Amended Oil Pollution Act of 1990 authorizing advances from Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. ref

Expanded oil rig workers’ families abilities to sue and recover. ref

Fined BP subsidiary $5.2 million for false reporting. ref

(EPA) Barred Texas’ authority to issue refinery operating permits. ref

—
From other non-energy categories…

Provided $5 billion for Weatherization Assistance Program for low income families. ref

Provided grants to encourage energy-efficient building codes.

Provided grants to encourage energy-efficient building codes. Ref

$8 billion combined public/private funding committed to develop Smart Power Grid (ARRA.) ref

$8 billion combined public/private funding committed to develop Smart Power Grid (ARRA.) ref

Study: Almost 5 million charging stations by 2015

(All the ‘ref’ stuff – links on the source page.)

http://obamaachievements.org/list

What hasn’t PBO done?

Signed a strong climate change bill. He would, if Congress would write one.

You do not move society by getting way out on one end and scream at everyone else for not seeing things the way you do. The way you make progress is to go to where society is and start them in the direction you think things need to move.

Romm is like other “true progressives” who do not understand that making progress is a process of small steps and when a step it taking it should be celebrated. He and others like him see a step taken and then dump all over the people on their side who didn’t make it two giant steps or a leap to the finish.

Now, I don’t think that climate change has been PBO’s number one priority. I don’t think it was reasonable for it to have been. Number one priority was to get the country back on its financial feet. And I think he chose health care because he felt it somewhere he could make a major change at that point in time.

I think that PBO was wise to not talk a lot about climate change. It seems to me that is was smarter to deal with economic and health care issues out in public and work quietly on climate change while the economy recovered.

Again, you’ve got to get elected in order to make change.

I see his opening of lands for oil and coal exploration as a political necessity. We won’t quit using oil and coal because the government says to. We’ll quit because alternatives become almost as cheap or cheaper and, possibly, because we get worried enough to put a small price on carbon.

Society will not accept a large carbon price unless there are reasonable alternatives. We will ruin the planet before we submit to major lifestyle changes. Yes, that’s too bad, but I think it a realistic summary of how people behave. (Just look at the folks who smoke, who drink too much, who eat too much, ….)

I see PBO as a master of timing. He plays a longer game than most of us are used to. Let’s look at why it might not matter that he’s been fairly quite on climate change.

First, the economy so sucked that we had little resources to throw at the problem.

Second, many of the technologies we need to keep the climate from getting worse were not mature enough. Solar, up until mere months ago, was very expensive. EVs/batteries are not ready to replace ICEVs on a large scale. Tidal and enhanced geothermal are still unsolved technologies.

It seems to me that there has been enough research and development money available to mature technologies. The solution most likely is not to build out that technology with public money, but to make them financially attractive to private money.

Buffett has put $6 billion into renewables in the last few months. He’s been joined by some major financial corporations.

Wind is cheap and solar is getting cheap. I see very promising developments in battery storage that will make wind + solar + hydro + geothermal + storage very affordable alternatives. They may not, in toto, be as cheap as fossil fuels but they may be close enough allow utilities to be forced over.

We’re seeing coal drop out. I suspect we’ll see an increase in natural gas prices over the next few years and when that happens utilities will turn up the speed of solar and wind installation.

I think we’re within five years of affordable EVs that give us adequate range. When that happens I think we’ll see a rapid transition away from oil.

I don’t think PBO could have done anything more than he did to make the price of solar fall faster or EVs mature quicker. I think he made the resources available for development, knowing that once we had alternatives it would be time to go loud.

(Am I impressed with the guy? Yes, I am. I see over and over that he works quietly on problems and then drops his finished work on our desks.)

bottom line: i think Obama wants to do what’s good for the country, and he’s doing his best at that, but that he doesn’t get the urgency of global warming nearly enough and also stuck some people in office who he really shouldn’t have. (in the OIRA case, old friend Cass Sunstein.)

on GW: i’m in the Joe Romm boat — you can’t solve this crisis without talking about it.

Job #2 – Save the World

———

I don’t get very caught up in what politicians say. They cannot offend too many people and gain office.

I try to put more of an emphasis on what politicians actually do.

Yes, PBO has said little to piss off oil, coal and nuclear interests in his speeches. But, as far as I can tell, he’s done them no favors in his practices.

When I look at the first 3.x years of President Obama’s first term I see pretty much nothing that he’s done to assist either the fossil fuel or nuclear industries. He’s done some significant things that cramp their style.

He’s required deep water oil to stop drilling until they get safety measures in place. He’s required companies that wish to build new nuclear reactors to ‘put more skin in the game’, he’s made them put more of their capital at risk. He’s allowed the EPA to do some significant clamping down on coal burning.

And at the same time PBO has assisted renewable energy and conservation.

He’s made it easier and quicker for renewables to get permits on federal lands. He’s steered stimulus money toward renewables, especially EV battery manufacturing. He’s spent a lot of time at renewable energy sites and equipment factories giving them publicity. He created “Cash for Clunkers” which got some of our most inefficient vehicles off the road and brought about a very major increase in fuel efficiency standards.

(Those lists are only examples. There is more….)

That humans are largely driving observed planetary warming is settled science among climate scientists.

People who have spent time studying the problem view human-caused global warming settled science and have moved on to studying the details.

If you wish to expand the meaning of scientist to include anyone with a graduate degree in some branch of science, e.g. a botanist or retired geologist, then you might be partially correct.

The Obama administration saved our economy after Bush’s put it on the fast track to collapse. Please, lay off the FOX.

You clearly don’t have a clue about what was involved in stopping the leak. Neither did the experts involved at the beginning.

It wasn’t about recovering the BOP, it was about stopping leaks below the BOP. It took some time to figure out what the damage was and the first attempt to put a dome over the leak failed. As did attempts to block the flow within the damaged pipe. There was a big mess of damaged pipe and rig structure on the sea floor which made simple solutions unworkable.

That’s why PBO stopped deep water drilling for almost a year while the oil industry got its act together so that it could deal with future problems.

There definitely was a way to stop the oil sooner – Many people came up with plans that could have stopped the oil sooner. – I personally submitted a design that would do it – it was in fact similar to the design that was finally used – but my plan would not have allowed the BOP to be recovered.

You’re friggin’ kidding – aren’t you?

There was no technology, no equipment, available to stop the flow of oil. The best minds in the oil industry and in the government were put to work figuring out how to do the job. It wasn’t like we had a great big stopper that PBO could rammed in the hole.

“Obama also continues to support nuclear – even after the Fukushima disaster.”

In what way does PBO support nuclear? If you look at the facts, PBO slipped a knife into nuclear’s back. The new loan guarantee greatly increases the financial liability for the companies that might want to build a reactor. Any company that borrows money to build a reactor now risks loosing their backside if they default.

Nuclear was already extremely hard to finance with private money. Now it will be even harder. Nuclear got a poison pill from the Obama administration.

I will agree that the environment is not PBO’s number one priority. He’s put the economy in first place and he used his honeymoon clout to get health care passed. But if you look at what PBO has done to increase EPA regs, increase gas mileage requirements, increase renewable energy and transmission, improve efficiency, put scientists back in control of government science it’s hard to argue that PBO is not working on environmental issues.

Could he have done more? Sure.

Just think what he might have done had we given him the Congressional support he needed.

Our only likely way away from coal and oil is via cheaper alternatives. Wind is there. Solar is getting close. Geothermal is roughly there. EVs are just about there.

If we can get Congress and the White House firmly in Democratic hands next fall then we stand a chance for pulling subsidies away from fossil fuels. That will help. But the real solution is to undercut their price.

That, as I said, was written during the period between PBO suspending temporary regulations and when the permanent EPA regulations came out in December.

Remember, the December EPA regs shut down the dirtiest coal plants.

“I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its Gross National Product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that’s what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House.”

He gained the White House, Democrats took back the House, and Democrats sort of took back the Senate. At no point did “liberal” Democrats control Congress and that meant that compromise was necessary. There was no opportunity to ram a “100% pure” universal health care/single payer program through.

What we got instead is a health plan that met the three big goals: 1) Affordable health insurance for those with pre-existing conditions, 2) Health insurance even if we get really sick and cost the insurance company a lot of money, and 3) Affordable health insurance for the ~50 million Americans who were uninsured.

Those were our three major goals. Single payer was a route to those goals, and perhaps a cheaper route, but we got where we wanted to go.

For 100 years we’ve been trying to get health coverage for all and now we’ve got it (baring Supreme Court nullification). How about we give the guy credit?

PBO campaigned that he would support unions, but during the fray in Madison, he presense was not seen.

PBO campaigned that he would do something about lobbyists, that must of been at the very bottom of his list of priorities.

Health Care, well… it seems as though the chips fell greatly in favor of the Health Insurance industry. PBO supported single payer, then he didn’t. Frankly I have my doubts about health insurance whether it is private or publically funded, as the result seems to be that it enables people to avoid taking responsibility for their own health, and in the process raising the costs for those who do.

I agree with you about the faux progressive left, they only exist behind computer keyboards, and are all invalids.

Yes, you are right change comes in little baby steps, and we shouldn’t expect any president to make change without some very visible support from the electorate. I believe progressive left died a long time ago, when they did nothing about the recount in Florida, and did nothing about the wars in Iraq and Afganistan, and continue to do nothing, as Congress passes NDAA.

George the II said we are addicted to oil, probably the only wise thing he said. But, he left out that we are also addicted to the MIC and security industry.

Anyway, I got to get back to work, read your reply and it got me all fired up, I had to stop, and pull into a rest area and defrack my brain some.

Richard