Originally Published by Darren Goode | Politico
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President Barack Obama made it clear Tuesday that he still thinks he can have it both ways on energy — taking unprecedented action on climate change while proudly presiding over a historic boom in oil and natural gas drilling.
And he probably can, for now, much to the chagrin of green activists who think he isn’t doing enough to fight global warming and fossil fuel producers who don’t trust him.
During Tuesday’s State of the Union address, Obama somberly declared that “climate change is a fact,” something we will have to account for to “our children’s children.” In the same breath, he extolled the fossil fuel surge, noting that the U.S. produced more oil last year “than we buy from the rest of the world — the first time that’s happened in nearly 20 years.”
He also pointed out that the nation’s carbon pollution is lower than it was eight years ago, a drop that the Energy Department has attributed partly to the rise of cleaner-burning natural gas as an alternative to coal. The U.S. is “becoming a global leader in solar, too,” said the president, who also talked about building cleaner cars, helping communities withstand the threats of worsening floods and droughts, and changing the Tax Code to encourage renewable power.
It’s the same dual dynamic on energy that he’s pursued throughout his presidency. On the one hand, he has mounted the first serious effort to throttle greenhouse gas emissions from major sources like power plants, wielding the regulatory power of the Environmental Protection Agency. On the other, his administration has coincided with an unexpected rise in oil and gas production from shale regions in states like Pennsylvania and North Dakota, giving the U.S. a breather from the fears of scarcity that had reigned since the 1970s.
“Taken together, our energy policy is creating jobs and leading to a cleaner, safer planet,” Obama said.
Obama got measured praise or mixed reactions from groups across the spectrum, including some major green and business organizations. But his harshest critics were having none of it.
“President Obama says he recognizes the threat of climate change, but he sure doesn’t act like it,” said May Boeve, executive director of the climate activist group 350.org, who attacked his support for natural gas. “Fracking isn’t a solution, it’s a disaster for communities and the climate.”
But the anti-regulation Institute for Energy Research said Obama is sticking to a green strategy that has failed to create jobs.
“In one breath, he seemingly took credit for increased supplies of domestic oil and natural gas that owe their development to leasing activities on state and private lands,” said IER President Thomas Pyle. “In the next, he suggested that his administration’s failed policies to underwrite expensive and unreliable ‘green’ energy sources is somehow helping the economy.”
Obama’s description of his energy policy as “all of the above” came less than two weeks after the heads of 18 major environmental groups had urged him to drop that approach, warning that fossil fuels — including gas — are already causing climate change.
One of those leaders, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune, said Tuesday that Obama’s speech had fallen short.
“If we are truly serious about fighting the climate crisis, we must look beyond an ‘all of the above’ energy policy and replace dirty fuels with clean energy,” Brune said. “We can’t effectively act on climate and expand drilling and fracking for oil and gas at the same time.”
Others came to his defense, including Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who said that “his talk about clean energy of course is part of his commitment to climate change, to stopping it, to slowing it down.”
As for natural gas, Boxer said: “As long as it’s safe, it’s fine. We just have to be very clear that it’s safe.”
Former White House energy and climate aid Heather Zichal said much of the criticism misses the point.
“It’s always easy to go through and nitpick and say what’s wrong with it or what’s missing,” she said as Obama was wrapping up his remarks. “The president has made bold commitments here. I would hope that we could all come together to support the president and get his commitments across the finish line.”
Also, “at a very basic level he’s calling out … climate deniers, which he should be doing,” she said. And she said Obama’s description of natural gas makes it clear that he views it as a transition fuel to cleaner energy sources. “That’s an important recognition that I don’t think I’ve seen previously from the president,” she said.
Administration officials had described the speech ahead of time as focusing extensively on what Obama can accomplish without the help of a divided Congress. But he also laid out ways lawmakers could assist him.
He promised to cut red tape to allow investments in new factories that run on natural gas, and said Congress “can help by putting people to work building fueling stations that shift more cars and trucks from foreign oil to American natural gas.”
In a White House fact sheet released Tuesday, Obama also asked lawmakers to help create Sustainable Shale Gas Growth Zones that “can ensure we develop shale gas the right way — and, at the same time, create stable communities with well-paying jobs.” The White House didn’t offer details of how those zones would work, however.
Obama’s call for converting heavy trucks to run on natural gas sounded reminiscent of a proposal long promoted by energy magnate T. Boone Pickens. But Pickens told POLITICO that while he was happy to see Obama mention natural gas, he doubted much would come of it.
“These kinds of things, if you just get up there and say them and you never carry out a plan, it just becomes another speech,” Pickens said. “And that’s what we’ve been seeing out of him.”
Obama also wants to extend a tax break for cellulosic biofuel production that expired at the end of last year, and he proposed a new “fuel-neutral” tax break to help bolster a broader range of alternative fuel vehicles.
But he made no mention of some of the biggest energy policy decisions he’s facing. They include whether to approve TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, which both some supporters and opponents had unrealistically hoped he would address Tuesday night. Also looming is a growing debate on whether the U.S. should expand its exports of coal and natural gas and lift a four-decade-old ban on exporting crude oil.
Republicans and industry critics complained that the administration’s lengthy review of the Keystone proposal is delaying jobs, while EPA’s climate rules will kill them.
“There were some important points made [Tuesday night] but there were also a lot of missed opportunities,” National Association of Manufacturers CEO Jay Timmons said. Timmons praised Obama’s words about the need to help manufacturers and natural gas production, but he also wanted Obama to talk about Keystone. And he said Obama reiterated a regulatory agenda that would hurt manufacturing.
“It’s never good to take one step forward and then be pushed two steps back,” Timmons said.
A coalition of several liberal and environmental groups, including the Center for American Progress and the Natural Resources Defense Council, said they were pleased Obama stuck to his guns on his climate plan, including the EPA’s power plant rules.
“We applaud the President for his climate change remarks tonight and his commitment to meeting our obligation to future generations to cut carbon pollution,” they wrote.