No U.S. Leader Has Done More To Advance The Fight Against Climate Change Than President Barack Obama
Posted by Michelle Moquin on October 11th, 2016
Good Morning!
I’ve written countless times about the wonderful things Obama has accomplished in his 8 years as our beloved president. I’m going to continue to give him the kudos he deserves as long as I can.
Here’s another for the environment:
We Need A President Who Will Continue Obama’s Climate Legacy — Not Destroy It
Obama has helped transform the U.S. into a global climate leader. The wrong successor could undo this progress.
Environmental activists say no U.S. leader has done more to advance the fight against climate change than President Barack Obama.
President Barack Obama will leave the White House in January with a proud environmental legacy. Despite fierce opposition in Congress and some resistance abroad, the president has managed to pass several key climate initiatives at home and brokered several important global deals to curtail greenhouse gas emissions. The Paris Agreement, the most significant climate change accord in history, is perhaps Obama’s crowning achievement.
“No U.S. president has done more to advance the fight against climate change. By a long shot,” wrote Lou Leonard, the head of the World Wildlife Fund’s climate change program, in The Huffington Post last month. “Whether driving domestic policy through the Environmental Protection Agency as Congress dithered, or using his diplomatic powers to make climate change a legitimate top foreign policy issue, President Obama has elevated climate and clean energy as no president has before.”
But as the ongoing legal and Congressional battle over Obama’s Clean Power Plan that aims to curb power plant emissions in the U.S. makes clear, there is no shortage of opponents eager to dismantle the climate gains that the president has achieved in almost eight years of office. The November election could determine a great deal about how America’s climate change story unravels from here.
As Obama himself told The New York Times last month, all of his climate achievements could be “undone at the ballot box.”
“I think it’s fair to say that if Donald Trump is elected, for example, you have a pretty big shift now with how the EPA operates,” he said.
But it’s not just the future of the Environmental Protection Agency that’s at stake. Here are some of Obama’s top environmental accomplishments as president. Will his successor defend and extend these climate gains, or destroy them, along with the environment?
An Energy Sea Change And Slashed Emissions
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Under Obama, the United States has moved away from coal and embraced cleaner forms of energy.
Under Obama, the United States has undergone an energy transformation. It’s moved away from coal, which environmentalists have called the “single greatest threat to our climate,” while embracing cleaner forms of energy.
When the president first took office, 48 percent of American’s electricity came from coal. Today, it’s about 30 percent, The Associated Press reports.
“There were gigantic changes happening in the energy world, gigantic tectonic changes,” Peter Fox-Penner of the Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy told the news outlet in September. “It’s a sea change. There is no question.”
With these changes has come another critical shift: over the past decade, U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide have fallen more than 10 percent. This is an insufficient reduction, some activists stress. But it’s a start. In 2015, U.S. CO2 emissions dropped by 145 millions tons, making it the world leader in lowering emissions.
There are many factors to credit for this decline, including the recession and technological advancements in the oil and gas industry. But as New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait explained in 2013, Obama deserves some of the credit, too. In 2009, the president had pushed through a stimulus package that increased research and spending in renewables including solar and wind. Wind power generation had since doubled in the U.S., Chait said, while solar power had risen six-fold.
The Obama administration also increased fuel mileage requirements for cars and introduced new standards for cleaner gasoline, as well as appliance and building energy efficiency.
The Clean Power Plan
Industry groups accuse Obama of declaring “war on coal” in his plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions cuts from power plants by 32 percent within 14 years.
When Obama unveiled the Clean Power Plan in August last year, it was hailed as the strongest action ever taken by a U.S. president to combat climate change. The plan, which gives the EPA the authority to regulate carbon pollution from power plants, aims for greenhouse gas emissions cuts from power plants of 32 percent by 2030.
Obama, who used the authority of an existing 1970 law to bypass Congress, called the Clean Power Plan a “moral obligation” for Americans.
But the law has been met with vehement opposition from dozens of states, corporations and industry groups who’ve called the regulation Obama’s “war on coal.” The Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the legislation. The stay is set to remain in place until after the election.
Paris Climate Accord And Other Global Initiatives
President Barack Obama, third from left, with heads of state from small island nations most at risk from the harmful effects of climate change, in Paris on Dec. 1, 2015.
Outside of the United States, Obama has been proactive in pushing other nations to commit to climate action.
In 2013, for instance, Obama and China President Xi Jinping signed an agreement to reduce emissions of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, which are used as refrigerants and are thousands of times more potent than CO2 at trapping heat. This week, world leaders are meeting in Rwanda to discuss a deal to ban the so-called “super greenhouse gas.”
Obama also played a central role in the brokering of the landmark Paris Climate Agreement, which is set to be activated in November. The accord, which commits nations to preventing a more than 2C rise of average global temperatures above pre-industrial levels, “gives us the best possible shot to save the one planet we got,” Obama said last week.
Closer to home, Obama rejected the controversial Keystone XL pipeline last November. The pipeline, which environmental groups had protested for years, would have transported hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil a day from Alberta, Canada to the U.S.
As a “global leader, when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change,” the president said America “frankly” could not approve the project.
Some observers said Obama’s decision then allowed him to start a dialogue about climate change with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, who had just been sworn into office.
By March, Obama and Trudeau had agreed to a climate partnership, which Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto later also signed. The agreement included a joint goal of generating half of North America’s electricity from low-carbon sources by 2025.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Obama have signed an agreement with a joint goal of generating half of North America’s electricity from low-carbon sources by 2025.
There are other wins on Obama’s environmental record. In particular, the protection of more environments than any other president in history, including the establishment of the world’s largest marine reserve. He also established the country’s first National Ocean Policy and the Great Outdoors Initiative. In 2013, Obama became the third U.S. president to install solar panels on the White House.
For all these successes, however, Obama has had his fair share of critics. Some activists say he hasn’t done enough, while opponents argue he’s overstepped his boundaries. The cap-and-trade bill he failed to push through during his first term is a notable failure.
Ultimately, Obama leaves “an ambitious and divisive legacy” to his successor, said The New York Times in September — from the contentious Clean Power Plan to the lofty Paris Agreement.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has made her position on climate change clear. At Sunday night’s debate, the former secretary of state called the issue a “serious problem.” She’s previously vowed to meet, and even exceed, the climate goals that Obama has set ― including generating enough renewable energy “power every home in America,” and both cutting energy waste and American oil consumption by a third within 10 years.
GOP nominee Donald Trump, on the other hand, has a decidedly more dangerous position. He has called climate change “bullshit” and a “hoax” that he insists the Chinese government created to destroy American manufacturing. He has vowed to dismantle the EPA, repeal the Clean Power Plan and “renegotiate” the Paris Climate Accord.
The former reality TV personality has also vowed to resuscitate the Keystone XL Pipeline. “I want it built but I want a piece of the profits,” Trump said in May. “That’s how we’re going to make our country rich again.”
Obama has said time and again that he believes climate action will be the most significant legacy of his presidency.
Climate change “poses a greater threat to future generations” than any other challenge, he’s said. So ensuring America’s role as a torchbearer in this fight has been crucial.
“Today the United States is leading on climate change,” Obama said in November, after rejecting Keystone.
Let’s keep it that way.
❤️❤️❤️
Thank you Mr. President for all that you do. You will be the first president that I will shed tears over after leaving office. You are a true president of the people, and you will be dearly missed. My future HOPE is that your legacy will have long legs for many years to come.
Readers: Blog me.
Social Butterfly: “Pussy Bow” aka: Pussycat Bow” is a name for a soft floppy bow that ties around the neck. This name was given because it takes the form of a bow similar to the ones tied around the necks of cats. It’s a term that originated from the 1930′s, so considering she is not from this country I doubt she knew it. The gods having fun maybe? :)
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October 11th, 2016 at 5:32 pm
I would have to agree! I live where I watch the air quality levels daily and there are whole areas here where you should be inside for days and yep it’s close to where they’re burning a lot of coal. Kudos to Obama on this one, IF it doesn’t get repealed *smh* by the people.
Obamacare could use reform fast though. I had to drop it and find Intl care bc it was almost as high as my rent, that’s ludicrous, not helpful. To his benefit, he did start the healthcare ball rolling but it needs work!
Luv, Zen Lill
October 11th, 2016 at 8:37 pm
and for a little debate levity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB2zoidUeLU enjoy ~ ZL
October 12th, 2016 at 6:01 am
I agree with you on the Obamacare Zen Lill. It does need work. My husband rages about it because he buys the republican line. However he has no comeback when I remind him that if it was not for Obamacare rules which prevent insurance companies from having preexisting conditions to disqualify a person he wouldn’t have been able to leave his old job for the very lucrative one he has now.
Before Obamacare he was forced to stay with a low paying job because our two children had a health condition that other insurance companies wouldn’t accept if he changed companies. Once Obamacare became law he like many others who were basically slaves to their employers could shop their services around for the best salaries.
Obamacare gave most employees free agency to use a sports analogy. Now we can go where the big bucks lead us without fear that we won’t be able to get coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
October 12th, 2016 at 6:03 am
Thanks for this article Michelle. I am an avid outdoorsman. It is obvious to me that climate warming is destroying the planet. It is changing things in ways that most won’t discover until it is too late to recover from.
October 12th, 2016 at 6:07 am
Zen Lill#1, I agree that Obamacare can be a bit expensive to some, but for those of us like me who have never been able to afford health insurance it is a godsend. For the first time we as a family can practice preventive care.
I can’t tell you how incredibly calming it is to know that we don’t have to wait until a symptom develops into something we can take to emergency before we can see a doctor.
October 12th, 2016 at 6:13 am
Zen Lill, I would like to add that my daughter was forced to move back home because after her divorce she could no longer afford her apartment on her own. Obamacare allowed me to add her to my insurance policy because she is only 22. This republican became a democrat because Obama allowed me to do something for my daughter that I couldn’t have done otherwise.
Ironically though my daughter is still a republican. She is the oldest of my three children all daddy’s girls. 20 and 18 switched to becoming democrats the minute Trump became the nominee. It was my youngest Vivian that introduced me to this blog when she was 16.
Well actually I was checking what she was viewing on line and when I discovered how many times she had visited this site, I decided to make it a regular read.
October 12th, 2016 at 6:18 am
Yes, Zen Lill Obamacare has its faults, but to me it gave my son-in-law the freedom to move closer so that I can visit my grandchildren. They have asthma. Without the restriction which prevents health companies from disallowing their coverage, he would have had to remain with his old employer 2600 miles away from me.
I couldn’t afford the visits. Now they live in the same town. I love Obama. I voted for McCain the first time but I not only voted for Obama the second, I actually campaigned for his re-election.
October 12th, 2016 at 6:20 am
I live in Sough Carolina. The water damage from the storm has destroyed our home. I can see and feel the changes in the size of these storms because of climate warming.
October 12th, 2016 at 6:21 am
Who would elect a person president who says he doesn’t believe in climate warming? That is incredibly irresponsible for a voter.
October 12th, 2016 at 6:23 am
6 Kelly that’s what I did for awhile, $1500/mo just is an outrage though and some pee-existings are frowned upon so hopefully it’ll get sorted before I return to the US. Luckily I’m healthy bc that amount was burdensome. Glad I’m out of country it’s easier to get SOS ins they can helicopter me to Hong Kong or Thailand if need be. My girl gets what she needs regularly and that what matters to me.
So while I’m happy for you it looks like we’ve traded places and well, that’s not fair either.
So, yes, it needs work…or not… maybe I’ll just go hang out in Phuket and say fuck it all.
It’s not a bad plan.
Cheers, to your kids’ continued good health and I mean it. I’m glad they’re getting the care they need.
~ ZL
October 12th, 2016 at 6:23 am
I don’t understand why in America your race for POTUS is so close given that one of the candidates is obviously unqualified and is possibly a racist.
October 12th, 2016 at 6:28 am
Zen Lill#11, I agree it does need some work. I’m 31 with a floppy heart valve so I need the no pre-existing condition part of Obamacare, but like you I hope they fix the expensive coverage part. Maybe as Hilary says we can get Single-Payer if the dems can take back the House and the Senate.
I am and independent who will be voting the straight democratic ticket this time. I am so excited to see a woman get her opportunity. I work outside the US and I can’t tell you how embarrassing it is to constantly be reminded that America hasn’t had a female POTUS.
October 12th, 2016 at 6:37 am
My husband and I are moving to Hong Kong next year. Perhaps we can meet. I have been a fan for 4 years and would love to meet my idol.
Scott and I work in hotel administration. We are taking over one of the big chains that has a location there. We would be delighted to have you stay gratis when you visit Hong Kong.
Our first choice was Milan, but we are excited about Hong Kong. The office politic involved in the selections for management in this field are insane. So we could still get our first choice. Regardless, I hope to meet you one day.
Tracy
October 12th, 2016 at 6:43 am
If Hilary wins, my daughters will probably bust a gut. They have been raving about it since Obama got elected. They sent me the link to your blog Michelle, and told me to “keep up” Michell will change the mind set of this country.
I don’t know about the country, but you have enlightened me. Your coverage of the world events and the open uncensored way you conduct your blog is fantastic. I raised 4 smart daughters who love your blog and 2 somewhat smart-alecky boys who think you are a man-hater who uses your blog to put men down.
I must admit I was inclined to go with my boys, but after 3 years of on and off reading of your personal comments and viewing your news selections, I have to admit you are fair and not just after men. Leroy is not my true name, I don’t want to risk hurting the egos of my boys.
October 12th, 2016 at 6:45 am
Happy to see Gore back on the campaign trail. He was a delight here in Florida. He definitely knew what he was talking about when he said EVERY vote counts.