An environmental agenda for Obama

In: Dissent: a quarterly of politics and culture, Band 56, Heft 3, S. 73-79

Abstract

As recently as last year's presidential campaign, the debate on Barack Obama's environmental agenda would have centered on righting the astonishing wrongs of the George W. Bush era. The last administration's performance—the junking of science, the suppression of basic information, the spinning of facts to fit ideology, the wanton disregard for enforcing pollution laws, the use of rule-making power for private gain—did extraordinary damage to the nation's environment. But it also paid Obama a political dividend of sorts. Bush's appalling performance yielded a bumper crop of low-hanging green fruit, much of which can be harvested without bold new legislation or dramatic spending initiatives. Obama can win much praise, and do much good, simply by enforcing the law and stopping the shenanigans.