The BP disaster is a wakeup call to America: it's time we all woke up and smelled the crude oil. We are, as President Bush said, addicted to oil and we must break that addiction before more lives are lost, ecosystems destroyed, and families devastated.
Every gallon of fossil fuels polluting the gulf coast is evidence to me that America should ditch the income tax for a carbon tax to "tax what we burn not what we earn." Replacing the income tax with a carbon tax would be a clear and definitive step to a clean energy future -- the moonshot of our generation.
Now I hardly expect today's logjammed Senate to come close to that boldness -- as I've blogged here before, Obama never promised me a Rose Garden -- but I do expect the promised action on energy.
Specifically, when asked how his Presidency should be judged, Obama set a clear marker for his first term in a June 2008 Rolling Stone interview: "If I haven't gotten combat troops out of Iraq, passed universal health care and created a new energy policy that speaks to our dependence on foreign oil and deals seriously with global warming then we've missed the boat. Those are three big jobs, so it's going to require a lot of attention and imagination, and it's going to require the American people feeling inspired enough that they're prepared to take on these big challenges."
Now, 2 years later, BP has wrought ecological, economic, and emotional destruction -- and we need a concerted effort to make things right for the families of the deceased and displaced, and to go forward into a clean energy future. While I would hope for a "tax what we burn not what we earn" economy, I'll take energy reforms and investments as interim steps. At a minimum, we should enhance regulatory oversight, health and safety regulations, lift liability caps to ensure that extractive energy efforts are fully paid for by private industry, and create market incentives to invest in clean energy solutions and stop funding both sides of the war on terror.
Predictably, corporate apologists and global warming skeptics warn that the President is "using" the BP disaster to push a clean energy agenda. I say bravo for him -- I'm glad President Obama woke up and smelled the crude oil. The ongoing BP disaster -- the oil belching from the center of the earth -- is an urgent reminder to President Obama to keep that campaign promise that inspired millions of Americans to work and vote for change.
Polling shows that the American people are far ahead of the corporate apologists on this one. Most Americans do see a connection between the BP disaster and America's addiction to oil that leaves us beholden to the hazards of extractive technologies and the perils of oil-rich dictators. The fact that we have oil company executives and middle east war generals testifying on Capitol Hill on the same day reinforces the public view that oil plays too large a role in our national security and economic recession.
The American people are inspired to take on this big challenge as candidate Obama called it. We support actions to break our addiction to oil, clean up pollution, invest in clean energy jobs, and promote energy independence. Indeed, polling on Clean Energy just released by The Benenson Strategy Group reveals that the BP disaster is intensifying the public's desire for clean energy investments and increased regulation on corporate polluters. People firmly believe Congress needs to do more than just make BP pay. Even when pressed with opposition messaging that now is not the time for some "job killing energy tax," people coalesce around comprehensive clean energy reform.
Specifically, 66% of Americans polled agreed with the statement: "British Petroleum must pay for the damage they've done. But our addiction to oil threatens our security and we need more than a band-aid for that. Senators need to pass real reforms to hold polluters accountable" while only 23% agreed with the statement that "We need to ensure that British Petroleum pays every last dime of the damages they've caused, but Senators would be wrong to try to use this tragedy to pass some huge new Washington program and job-killing energy tax."
The public is there, the House Democrats are there -- time for the President to move the Senate to "create a new energy policy that speaks to our dependence on foreign oil and deals seriously with global warming," Now that's change I can believe in.
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Tom Engelhardt: Entering the Soviet Era in America
Drunk on war as Washington may be, the U.S. is still not the Soviet Union in 1991 -- not yet. But it's not the triumphant "sole superpower" anymore either.
Halsey Minor: The Risk of Eliminating Risk
Corporations now enjoy powers and privileges historically reserved for monarchs, and, like monarchs, the people who run them are largely insulated from the consequences of their actions.
Andrew Belonsky: Will Deepwater Disaster Save Crist's Candidacy?
As the oil crisis drags on, the governor has made up some of the ground he lost. Could BP's ruin be Crist's political salvation?
Levi Novey: "Go Diego Go" Takes on an Oil Spill
I was happy to see the show bring up the issue of how animals are threatened by oil spills. But I also thought it was odd how the show made cleaning up a spill seem so easy.
http://newenergyalternative.com/biomass-waste-energy/virgin-biomass-source-renewable-energy
What happens to Federal income when we all cut back consumption by 50%? How are you going to run the government then?
A noble effort, but it's more likely to lead to a poorly-executed, overall tax hike than to a productive substitution of tax revenue.
Why not change what we can so we can become as independent as possible from foreign oil?
I just don't get the naysayers. What exactly is their objection to finding cleaner better renewable sources for energy? Why can't they feel positive or enthusiastic about such a good thing?
Is it that they just aren't educating themselves about all the new exciting technology or what?
Build a system so that 80% of Americans won't even need to own a car to get where they want, when they want.
I've been to Europe and senn it working, so save me the "it can't be done here" whine...
A solar powered jet or sailing ship (wind or solar)?
Great way to put it, and true.
This is the only fair treatment of Obama's speech.
The other articles are bogus indignation that Obama is not a screaming liberal.
Progressives hate that, but Repubs hate it even more: it means he gets bills passed, gets reelected, retains Dem control.
Like most posters, Repubs want Obama to be more Progressive, makes him easy to beat.
Fortunately, Obama is smarter and a better politician than the posters.
Some are so consumed with disdain for President Obama that they've resorted to running in circles and blaming him for their inertia. It's easier to psychoanalyze the president than it is to actually come up with good ideas to fix our problems. If someone can count to 60 for their idea, let's hear it.
"But in the meantime....we love the all, the all of you." (Spacehog)
This article is old, old, old, but relevant, relevant, relevant: Ted Halstead, "A Politics for Gen-X," Atlantic Monthly (August 1999)
Part One: http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/99aug/9908genx.htm
Part Two: http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/99aug/9908genx2.htm
Spread your word no matter how many people you tick off...your grandkids will thank you for it!!!
It's simply more sensible to give tax credits to retrofit houses to make them more energy efficient and the same for utilizing other sources of energy, not penalizing the people..
That's about the creepiest alien image I've seen. I simultaneously dig it and am horrified by it. Do you mind mentioning where you found it?