Green Groups Struggle With Obama's Mixed Environmental Record

WASHINGTON -- When Barack Obama was elected president, environmentalists believed a new age of environmental protection and conservation had come. But almost three years into his presidency, the Environmental Protection Agency is under assault by Republican officials and support for environmental causes is overshadowed by a lagging economy.

The president on Friday angered environmentalists with his decision to overrule the EPA and delay the tightening of smog regulations until 2013, bending instead to pressure from Republican lawmakers and business interests.

But the reviews of Obama's general environmental record have been more mixed. The Huffington Post asked four prominent environmental groups -- Greenpeace, League of Conservation Voters, Environment America and Sierra Club -- what they thought of the president’s track record.

A spokesman for Greenpeace called Obama’s performance "mediocre at best," citing a lack of leadership on passing an energy and climate bill. “Instead we saw compromise early and often, and we really didn't see the president stepping up in the House and making sure there was a strong bill," the spokesman told HuffPost on Thursday.

After Obama's announcement on Friday, Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace, said in a press release that "President Obama announced he is siding with dirty energy corporations when it comes to air pollution, instead of supporting Americans who are struggling to find work and trying to keep their families healthy."

The League of Conservation voters likewise criticized Obama for his decision. "The Obama administration is caving to big polluters at the expense of protecting the air we breathe," said Kate Geller, press secretary of the League of Conservation Voters, in a press release Friday. "This is a huge win for corporate polluters and huge loss for public health."

However, the League proved to be more supportive of the president's general environmental track record.

"I think there's no doubt it's been a mixed bag in some respects," Navin Nayak, senior vice president for campaigns at the League, told HuffPost before Obama's most recent announcement. "He's done more than any president in living memory on energy issues, increased fuel efficiency standards twice, and made significant investments in clean energy."

Nayak cautioned that green groups haven’t finished their performance assessments.

"Is he still going to be a president who stands with us?" asked Nayak. "I think for a lot of big decisions, he as president and his administration over the next six months are going to be very informative."

Environment America, a federation of state-based environmental advocacy groups, was more satisfied with the administration's environmental progress, praising its new fuel economy standards.

"I think that mostly, we're very excited about progress on a whole set of issues," Environment America D.C. director Anna Aurilio told HuffPost on Thursday. "The car standards that he's already done and the car standards he's proposing are the biggest steps we can take to get the country off oil and cut down on global warming."

"He's been pushing back at the polluters’ allies in Congress," Aurilio added. "If you look at the interior appropriations bill that the House put out and The White House response, we think this is head and shoulders from past administrations."

The Sierra Club also lauded the administration’s new limits on emissions for cars and trucks, but gave Obama's broader environmental record mixed reviews.

"The new fuel efficiency standards, the standards for large trucks has been huge, something that's never been done before," spokesman Tony Cani told HuffPost before Obama's announcement on Friday. "He's really outspoken about a new energy economy, new jobs, and creating a better environment."

Still, Cani said there are a range of important decisions coming up that provide an opportunity for Obama to step up and show leadership on green issues, such as with the Keystone XL, a proposed 17,000-mile oil pipeline that would bring crude oil from tar sands in Canada to oil refineries along the Gulf Coast. Environmental groups have called the president's decision on the pipeline “the biggest test” of his presidency. “We're looking to him to serve that role and be that leader," Cani said.

The president has indicated that he is cognizant of the need to shore up support among environmentalists going into 2012, saying he will push energy and environmental causes, such as new regulations for coal ash, should he win a second term.

Comments

[Bill Baugh]

04:29 PM on 09/13/2011

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[aroethCCBC]

04:59 PM on 09/06/2011

Once again this is Obama showing that his endless campaign promises were nothing but empty words. How can a president that was completely for reducing oil dependency and want a more eco-friendly environment decide to overrule this? Decisions like overruling the EPA and the Keystone XL pipeline prove that his desire to be re-elected outweighs his desire to stay true to his word. When your own former employees are getting arrested at protests for bills that you are trying to pass, it’s probably time to take a look at your actions. I understand the argument that the pipeline will create jobs, but at the expense of the environment? Wasn’t it Obama who for months during his campaign in 2008, promised and assured the American people that he would do all in his power to make changes to deter us from pollution and oil reliance? With polls today showing his 53% disapproval rate, now is the time for Obama to step up and fulfill his promises if he has any chance for re-election. Maybe he will remind us why we voted for him in the first place.

[GENi360]

09:31 AM on 09/06/2011

It's time that the president stop with all of the rhetoric and finger-pointing on important issues like the environment and jobs and do something that delivers results that the people can feel. President Obama needs to break down the walls of bureaucracy and open the channels of communication so he can really hear what the people are saying. He might discover that there are a lot of people in this country who are much smarter than his close circle of bureaucrats! He might even find some solutions to our nation's most pressing problems.

[duzacm]

05:40 AM on 09/06/2011

Obama is making the right decision. Many in the industral workplace will be glad when they realize that over regulation and "Junk science" have costed many jobs. So let the ultra environmentialist have their say. And if the truth were known ,they are in a state of job security and aren't being foreclosed on like the middle class workers are.

[watershedbaby]

09:24 AM on 09/05/2011

No need to struggle with Obama....leave him. Just like you would leave any kind of abuser that damages your own faith, character and ethics.

[Randolph Greer]

11:56 PM on 09/03/2011

Air is something that crosses national boundaries. This is the critical issue for large corporations because they needed this extremely loose regulatory regime to continue their large profit making ventures. The time has come to look beyond the United States to the people of the world to unite in a singular cause to save our planet . I have created a special petition for this purpose. I hope everyone around the world will read it,will sign it, and pass it on to the rest of humanity. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/non-violent_revolution_against_corporate_tyranny/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=button

[duzacm]

07:47 PM on 09/05/2011

You left something out .The One World Government .

[Randolph Greer]

08:26 PM on 09/05/2011

I thought that was essentially implied in my petition. There is going to be a one world government in the future. That is neither good nor bad in itself. Size is not a factor in the well-being of Mankind. The only relevant question is who will possess the power. My desire is that the people of the world draft the world constitution and not the corporate entities. My petition is to help bring the people of the world together behind that cause. The corporations are already writing the constitution for us. I am just trying to get the people to focus in on the real enemy which must be destroyed in the process. If we don't destroy them, they shall surely destroy us.

[BarryChaLaque]

11:53 PM on 09/03/2011

obama’s not winning friends on either side of the aisle lately, huh? You feel obama is playing politics withthe Earth's survival? Is that it?

Look, in the mid-70s, when I was living in Chicago, there was a clarion call to turn down our thermostats to 65 during the winter time. The big fear was that we were heading for the next ice age. The liberal EPA scared the children with visions of polar ice caps plowing through our houses. Fast forward 40 years, and now we have rising ocean levels.

But lo and behold, all the data that has been foisted upon the public, has become tainted because the scientists needing more grant money has modified the data to their benefit. So please tell me, why should we believe you all whether there is a freeze or a heat wave heading are way. And why should I care that obama messed up your "date night" by going back on his word.

YOU all didn't see this happening?

[Dallas Dunlap]

07:30 AM on 09/04/2011

"Liberal" EPA pushing an ice age scare? BS. Popular magazines aside, there was never any concern among scientists over an imminent ice age.
I was around in the 70s, too. The reason people were asked to turn down their thermostats was because of an energy crisis. At the time electricity was generated in oil fired plants and there were two "oil shocks" in the 70s, leading to fears of a permanent oil shortage.
As for the "liberal" EPA: It is only recently that Republicans turned against the environment. The EPA was a creation of the Nixon Administration. Nixon and Ford were in office until 1977.

Your story that scientists have "modified" data is a ridiculous slander. I suspect that you know that already, though.

[BarryChaLaque]

10:02 AM on 09/04/2011

"SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based. It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to show a long-term rise in temperature over the past 150 years."

"Anthony Watts provides an explanation of this case in technical detail; the “trick” consists of selectively mixing two different kinds of data-temperature “proxies” from tree rings and actual thermometer measurements-in a way designed to produce a graph of global temperatures that ends the way the global warming establishment wants it to: with an upward “hockey stick” slope."

"As loathsome of a collection of frauds as our global warming “scientists” have proven to be, they don’t hold a candle to the mainstream media propagandists who made this colossal hoax possible in the first place – and who are still trying to conceal the fraud even now."

Sorry DD, it was a hoax from day one. The fanatics have proven that global warming is a religion. It is an ideology advanced by religious fanatics. This latest admission proves they have no raw data; they have no “science”; all they have is a rabid faith commitment that their own self-created narratives must be true because they believe it is true.

[duzacm]

07:58 PM on 09/05/2011

And just think of the loss of jobs that has suffered because of over regulation. Obama has finally realized this.Now is he going to admitt that over regulation costed jobs ? Jobs that could have boosted the economy and created even more jobs. And there are the government grants that must be re-structured and addressed to acccomidate the demands of the enviromentilist .
BUT ! Don't suffer the families who have had to surrender valueblejobs and benifits because of over-regulation.

[Linus521]

09:02 PM on 09/03/2011

In the future, how can we trust any of Obama's environmental promises since he appears not to care about this issue --- long before 2012. He is going to kill thousands of acres of ecosystems for this pipeline. Obama has done something no prez in history has ever done -- circumvent and violate the spirit, trust and intent of the Endangered Species Act when he permitted his Republican pals to start killing wolves, a specie protected by this law. It was science that maintained, the wolf needed protection. If Obama can't get the big picture now, how can he in a year?

One of this nation's scientists recently remarked, everything Washington is doing concerning the status of the planet is headed in the wrong direction. Historically, the torch bearers of environmentalism have been liberals and progressives, and it appears Obama is neither.

[duzacm]

08:03 PM on 09/05/2011

Obama has to admitt that over regulation has been a dismal failure. But will he ever admitt that? Not hardly. The reason is plain. He would have to admitt that over regulating has costed many many jobs. And if he has the abillity to understand, JOBS ARE WHAT MOVES THE ECONOMY !!

[Linus521]

09:41 PM on 09/05/2011

You are so absolutely correct. De-regulations ruined the financial economy and will now ruin the economy of this nation's share of the Earth. Just a few days ago, we watched a documentary about how all of the banking and financing deregulations or thievery ruined the global, financial economies, making bankers and lenders wealthy at the expense of the majority of everyone on the planet.

If modern man were moral and ethical, we wouldn't need regulations, but every issue is driven by profit, alone, without consideration for Earth, life and vulnerable people. So many people care nothing about moral and ethical duties for the greater good for all, including Mother Earth. You are sooo right on.

[trudem1919]

06:59 PM on 09/03/2011

I am beginning to wonder if this guy is just not some Trojan horse plant from the Republicans. Why don't you just go ahead and hand them the keys to the Oval office barrack ? Why don't you just go ahead and resign so we can have a coalition government with Eric Cantors yatch as Vice President ? I mean let take this appeasement strategy to it's furthest externality. Why did you even run for this job knowing you don't have the political muscle to bust a grape ? And please Democrats, no more Harvard left brain geeks, PLEASE ! Remember Dukkakis ? Enough already. Time to find someone with the ballslikeLBJ, the smarts like Kennedy, the don't giveA '''''''' like Clinton and the hutzpah like Spitzer !!

[StCyrlyMe2]

03:21 PM on 09/03/2011

I'm afraid not much is ever going to get done for the Democrats period as long as we allow GOP leadership in Congress No matter what President we put in office
Not putting out our votes in 2010 sends a strong message to the entire Democratic party If we don't want this country under Corporate GOP sedge We need to get up off my butts an do our part
All the media coverage for the right in the world, will not change the fact there are far more strong voices an deeds on the left then the few on the right whom are mostly wrong!

[fvleo]

03:59 PM on 09/03/2011

I think agree with your comment now that I've deciphered it (except for the very last part which I still can't figure out).

[annyp]

03:18 PM on 09/03/2011

I really don't blame the President on this one. Everytime he talks about alternative energy, he was has been scoffed at. He tried promoting high speed rail, to get vehicles off the road, and was scoffed at. Everytime he visits a battery factory, he is scoffed at. People still want their coal fired power plants and aren't willing to modernize. Natural gas is much cleaner but because fracking isn't been done correct, lots of protests. So as long as people are going to keep driving their gasoline cars and buck change, nothing will change. The President has a vision for the country, but when you can't get people on board, what is a guy suppose to do? Change takes time but no one is interested.

[just anotherone]

12:51 PM on 09/03/2011

I'm not surprised at President Obama's decisions. I never believed that he was the Champion of We, the People, as he proclaimed he would be.

During his 2007/2008 campaigning I saw him as a well educated and well spoken, perfectly packaged Corporate Product. He has little to no leadership skills; has no idea how to work with and organize the Democratic Party, nor any successful long term practical experience working with Congress.

Take some time to investigate the background of his top advisers, and their connections to Wall Street and major U. S. Corporations.

Shame on the Democratic Party for promoting him as a champion that he never was, nor will ever be.

[Marmashi]

03:00 PM on 09/03/2011

Shame on us nothing. We were in destructive chaos under Bush/Cheney and needed help. He did seem to be the real thing and nervy. I never imagined he would be so spineless and unwilling to SELL HIS MESSAGE once he was in office. He has done a lot of good, but who knows about it or appreciates it? He just muddles thru without any sell or promotion. Now he wants to be re-elected (or does he- this EPA decision looks like he just quit to me) and wonders how to get people excited??? Try selling what you did and fighting the GOP messaging with his own version. The GOP is almost perfect in their messaging that deficits are all that matters and taxes cannot be raised. I do not believe that everyone is buying it, but I do not hear the other message that RAISING TAXES ARE THE ANSWER to the deficit not the cause. A few economists try but who listens?
Shame on the Dems? No shame on the Republicans for hating a man just because he won. For fighting him on EVERYTHING. Such savage behavior. Shame on them.
The Dems need help standing upright and standing together. That I do agree with. But shame, no- they should not be ashamed. They are just too timid.

[fvleo]

04:00 PM on 09/03/2011

BRAVO!

[just anotherone]

05:44 PM on 09/03/2011

I 'basically' agree with most of the feelings your express- I feel that the problem with the Dems isn't being timid, it's being as systemic-ally corrupt as the Republicans. I want to see a strong 3rd or even 4th party established to challenge and defeat both Repubs and Dems

[Porfirio Wise]

12:23 PM on 09/03/2011

You can't "compromise" when it involves the environment! SPINELESS!!!

[daddycool 67]

02:34 PM on 09/03/2011

Go ahead and vote republican then and see what happen to the environment.

[Porfirio Wise]

04:27 PM on 09/04/2011

why the hell would I vote republican

[fvleo]

04:03 PM on 09/03/2011

Nonsense. Compromises buy time. Digging in your feet rarely accomplishes anything. I share your disappointment, but I wouldn't react so extremely. We're trying to balance many interests and solve many problems. We just need to keep socking away at the right wing dreams of (oil) tanking the economy. The fight is never over.

[chaucer1]

09:54 AM on 09/03/2011

As Keith said last night, Obama's strategy after slapping his base in the face seems to be "Who else you gonna vote for, Rick Perry?"

[daddycool 67]

02:35 PM on 09/03/2011

Well ..... he's exactly right.
Who else ARE you gonna vote for ?

[just anotherone]

05:47 PM on 09/03/2011

OUCH- but I like your statement. Who else to vote for- I feels it's time to start supporting 3rd party candidates.

[TheHeartland]

08:29 AM on 09/03/2011

The world would be quite different if the supreme court hadn't over ruled the will of the people in 2000. The Petermann glacier in Greenland is a portent of things to come.