New West Blog
Report: Obama ‘Tacitly’ Supporting Bush-Era Environmental Policies
By Courtney Lowery, 6-17-09
Sometimes, what you don’t do can be just as telling as what you do. In a report today the Chicago Tribune’s Jim Tankersley makes that case in detailing what Bush-era environmental policies the Obama administration is “backing” via inaction in the courts.
From the story:
“… five months after he entered the White House, Obama has done nothing to defend the so-called roadless protections in a court case that could soon decide their fate — tacitly maintaining the legal position staked out by the Bush administration, which tried to scrap the plan to curb construction of new roads in national forests.
Obama administration officials say they’re committed to roadless protections and are aggressively pursuing them through policymaking rather than in the courts. They say their actions in the “roadless” court case reflect legal tactics, not the real thrust of their policy.”
Tankersley also highlights drilling on the Roan Plateau as another example.
“As a junior senator from that state in 2008, Ken Salazar called the plan “the unsound product of an administration that has lost sight of the balance” between developing and conserving public lands. Now Salazar is interior secretary and negotiating with environmentalists and industry to settle a lawsuit challenging the leasing plan. His lawyers told a court this spring that the plan was legal.”
[End of article]The Blathering Class just has to make up something to blather about. It should be obvious that Obama is choosing his battles and timing them carefully. He'll accomplish more in the long run if he doesn't try to do much to soon.
Comment By Mickey Garcia, 6-17-09Too much too soon. Political capital has to be replenished after every battle.
Comment By Charles Malen, 6-17-09Obama comes from urban Chicago. He has no interest in wildnerness, wildlife, etc. These decisions will be made at lower levels by his appoinments in these areas; none of which were stellar. This dream of Obama's supporters that he is just waiting for the right time to spring reforms are going to be disappointed.
Comment By Jay Kanta, 6-17-09I'm not really sure I read the same article that Charles and Courtney read. The one I read seems to show that the Obama administration has so far knocked out one Bush appeal and that there are consistently new legal maneuverings that make it very unclear what is actually happening, especially since they can't comment on current legal actions.
As well, Obama has pledged to not use signing statements to create legislation, unless the issue in immediately dire. The legislation that would "curb construction of new roads" would then have to start the process of going through Congress. With such a bill, I would imagine it would have to be tacked on as a "rider" due to the party of NO. I could be wrong, but thats how the Owyhee protection had to go through.
So I'm wondering exactly what is your beef? The invisibility of the maneuvering, or that legislation hasn't been introduced, yet? The Democrats would have to introduce it, and I don't see many of those from the Wilderness states.
"Obama comes from urban Chicago"..........That's just silly. Some of the most rabid open space and wilderness freaks I know come from urban areas. They move to the exurbs and when they get their little chunk of paradise, they become BANANA-E-NIMBYS (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody and Especially Not In My Back Yard). Somehow they feel it is their God given entitlement to be the not only the latest but the last settlers and it is their sacred mission to declare any undeveloped private property designated wilderness and open space, absolutely oblivious to the fact that they just reek of hypocrisy because they are really practicing land use monopoly to benefit their own property values.
Comment By the real mike, 6-17-09One of the top traditional RIGHTWING REPUBLICAN (my compliments, Jill) tactics has been to pretend to focus on issues that can easily be used to stir up their base and thus raise a lot of noise. Environmental issues fall right dead center in the middle of that category, which is why Clinton was smart enough to wait long into his second term to take on the most contentious environmental issues like the roadless question and the need to pull an FDR-like Grand Tetons-national monument end run to protect the Escalante-Grand Staircase. By that time, he was well beyond being hurt by the resulting whipped-up redneck backlash and Gore was courageous enough to accept the indirect splatter. I think Obama will use the same approach; he'll use admin tactics to simultaneously defend and stall on those issues that will most easily whip up the gutter trash, while focusing his early political capital on climate change, energy, and other farther reaching initiatives. Later, when the timing favors him more than the RIGHTWING REPUBLICANS (no need to thank me, Jill), he'll make his moves.
Comment By Bill Croke, 6-17-09Once a reporter asked Franklin Roosevelt a question about his Depression-era agriculture policy. "Why don't you ask the Secretary of Agriculture?" snapped FDR. The public lands just aren't sexy from the point of view of the current president.He could care less. He's too busy with his fascistic economic machinations, and a foreign policy scene that gets more circuslike (Iran, North Korea, etc.) everyday. The gay lobby is extremely disappointed by his lack of attention to them (Defense of Marriage Act, Don't Ask Don't Tell, etc.). I think Jay and Mikey and other Enviro-Wonks are going to be standing in line a long time waiting for Obama to give a spotted owl hoot about the public lands at all. He appointed Mr. Tidwell to run the USFS. Boy, there was a no brainer if you look at the guy's resume'. Obama must have learned something from the Homer Wilkes fiasco.
Comment By TreeHugger, 6-17-09yeah "real mike".......Obama is going to swoop in at the last hours of his presidency and pass your NREPA bill using the Antiquities act.."Wilderness Monuments"....I don't doubt that's the way things work in your land of make believe.
Face the facts..NREPA
IS
DEAD.
The thing about Obama is that he played the environuts like a fiddle during his campaign. He got all of you to finance his campaign letting you believe whatever fantasy world you could come up with on how he would govern.
The fact that he's not meeting the expectations of the obstructionist wing of the environmental community is not due to any fault of his own but instead of their own delusional expectations.
Bill is closer to reality pointing out that Obama has much bigger issues to deal with. I don't think that Obama doesn't care about public lands issues, but he certainly doesn't have time to give them much thought right now. Surely you've noticed that Salazar got appointed over someone like Carl Pope. Moderation and compromise seems to be the themes playing out which I'm sure is tough for certain obstructionist environmental groups to swallow.
To think that Obama would pull off a stunt like Clinton did with Grand Staircase at the end of his presidency is laughable. Grand Staircase of course is located in Utah where we might have dinosaurs roaming again before another Democrat is elected to be President. NREPA lands lie heavily in two states where Democrats are desperately trying to gain or maintain a small foothold. I'm not a political scientist but.......
but....you slept at a Holiday Inn?
If the issues are in the court, there is no reason to write up legislation that will pass court muster, yet. I thought that might be obvious to some, but evidently I assumed too much.
If Barack was brilliant enough to have "...played the environuts like a fiddle during his campaign..." what makes you so certain that he's not STILL brilliant enough to be playing you right-wingnuts the same way now that he is IN POWER!
Try to get over it, okay?
I think it's pretty obvious that Obama just isn't as liberal in most issues as the right try to paint him and the left wish he was. He is a pragmatic conciliator/compromiser and will govern from slightly left of center. That will work fine for generating contributions to liberal and conservative groups complaining about him on either end of the spectrum, and also for the bulk of voters who are actually in the middle. The only thing that is questionable is whether true meaningful changes will actually be accomplished, or incrementalism will continue to rule the political landscape of this country. I'm betting on the latter, but I'm kind of a cynic.
Comment By Mickey Garcia, 6-19-09I think Obama is more liberal than you think. And that's just fine with me. However he and his team probably understand that "incrementalism" is the only possible way to reach his goals while keeping the uproar on the far right at manageable levels.
Comment By David, 6-21-09Obama needs to strike now. Conflict is integral to developing new policy. He needs to push new policy and affect court decisions while he has the support. If he doesn't act now he never will. I don't know if I was played like a fiddle, but I do think the left will soon realize that Obama is not going to live up to the promise. He's afraid of the fight. To much compromise will leave us with change we can't see. Incrementalism is the way of democracy, but economic, ecological, and social decay leave no time for the childish, ideologic dogmas that reign in Washington. And, if he doesn't act soon I'm afraid we'll all be depressed, enviro and right wing nuts included.
Comment By bearbait, 6-21-09Obama's plate is full. Two wars, universal health care, mega deficit budget woes, two auto makers to care for to save the union health and welfare benefit, banks to prop up, insurance companies to save, a whole administration to fill with the diversity of the "big tent" Democrat party, the baseball drug scandals to investigate, prosecution of the Bush Administration for crimes against the world, many, many more American faux pas and indiscretions to the world since 1776 to publicly atone for, and besides, he did push for and signed the Omnibus Wilderness Act right out of the blocks. The GreenSide got its licks in early and big. So right now, enviro whining seems a little childish. Don't sound so greedy. That vice is reserved for Republican business people who are not making money and not paying taxes, even if you want the taxes to rise. We do first have to have an economic recovery which looks to be far, far away in some future time. We lived in a huge countrywide house of cards, and many of the ways capital was created were not real, and as a result, to have a real recovery we have to do it with reform and conservative financial integrity. That could take decades. Or maybe never.
Comment By Johnny Thundersockeye, 6-23-09Leave it to Bearbait for a bright, cheery solstice state of the union assessment! Thanks for keepin it real - I just wish He wasn’t right so often about so many things-but unfortunately I think he is. This country is so messed up in so many ways that things like NREPA, Wolves and Endangered species are almost starting to seem like pointless luxuries to be discussed at a time when Rome is burning so ferociously it's almost unfathomable that most people even begin to care about such things. And yes I realize its all intertwined-that the same overconsumption and unbridled reckless capitalism (that’s really more like Oligarchism than true capitalism at this point) have plunged us in to the current economic and environmental crisis. So an essential part of the cure seems like it must lie in the potential jobs created by overhauling and redesigning energy production and generally deriving regional site specific solutions to environmental problems-which all sounds desirable -but in the meantime We need to remember that this country and its economy are BARELY even breathing at this point and I for one am quite willing to forsake some preservation and Idealistic ecological integrity temporarily ,to revisit it at a later date if by doing so we get this country moving again to the point where the wails and cries of children recklessly birthed in to this mess with unfit underprepared parents who could barely survive even before the economic collapse, would cease due to the restoration of some semblance of economic prosperity for the lower and middle classes.
If that means that in order to jumpstart the economy we still for a time need to immerse ourselves in activities which are questionably sustainable or beneficial within the long term context of desirable future conditions, well then that’s ok-for example as George Wuerthner just pointed out in his extremely well written and scientifically accurate piece on fire (and I’m sorry but if you know anything about the incredibly complex site and weather specific science of Fire Ecology you realize its a very valid assessment) many of these WUI thinning projects may very well offer little or no long term benefit towards protecting private property no matter how far or close to the interface they are because in certain extreme weather conditions EVERYTHING WILL BURN!-even creek bottom riparian zones. This is what happened in 2000 and 2003 when here in Western Montana we had infernos raging across everything from the driest most typically fire prone Ponderosa and Doug Fir habitat types (no surprise with fire return intervals that typically range from 5 to 35 years) all the way up to Subalpine Fir and even Mountain Hemlock Zones where fire return intervals are more on the order of 150-300 years -we even had creek bottom Cedar habitat in North facing slopes practically in the Alpine zone where avg. annual precip is 70 inches burn those years! So we know that a lot of these WUI projects may not accomplish much or may even be ecologically destructive BUT (this is where I respectfully part company with George and jump over to Bearbait and Skinners side)SO WHAT!
This country cannot afford the luxury of idealistic ecological integrity any more-not right now. I say fire up the saws and start slashing with as many WUI projects as possible, stream restoration and instead of just road obliteration -how about some well needed logging road maintenance so we can keep the few that are still usable as such. Quite simply any thing that will put any body to work within the context of something even just temporarily sustainable or slightly beneficial needs to be derived and executed NOW with all this supposed stimulus money. Who cares if 20 years from now we realize that a lot of these thinning projects really didn’t end up preventing catastrophic wildfire ,if during this critical current time period the projects at least put food on the table and some sort of employment stability in to the lives of the many who are desperately floundering, especially in rural areas. If by the grace of GOD ALMIGHTY this country ever recovers to any degree of its former wealth then we can again start talking about pipe dreams like NREPA(which is ecologically ethical for sure but has yet to be proven economically or socially) and the supposedly flourishing tourism based economy it would perpetuate through so much preservation. I think its highly unlikely that a lot of these RARE era road less areas are going to be significantly eroded by burgeoning development projects far and wide any time soon.
In the meantime unless your one of the lucky few who inherited a trust fund that wasn’t destroyed by Wall Street and the Bernie Madoff imitating scum of the earth, then you like me are probably a wee bit stressed about the direction the American dream seems to be currently headed. We are manly in survival mode at this point and we cannot afford to endlessly bicker, debate and litigate over every last detail of every ecological policy and project. The age of analysis paralysis has got to end in favor of green-minded, collaborative tinkering and exploration. The whole concept of eco restoration is by and large still waiting to be pioneered and proven with much more long term data and site analysis necessary to truly know what kind of “desired future conditions” we are truly capable of steering and sustainably yielding through our activities-and we will surely have both failures and successes along the way, but we need to be DOING rather than just more arguing.
I would say its much too early to tell what Obama’s environmental legacy will become but I’m quite certain it will be a vast improvement and much less short-sighted than the un mitigated disaster that became the standard operating, stick your head in the sand and pretend its not happening procedure of the previous administration. Extreme environmentalists need to settle down and be happy that at least things are heading much more in favor of a universal green-minded existence being derived in this country and globally than ever before in history, even if it is out of back against the wall desperation, at this point. And last but not least I wholeheartedly concur with good ol Bearbait about the fact that the male population of the world and Catholics especially need to become much more proficient in the usage of prophylactics (I learned that in the Blues Brothers movie remember?) aka condoms and even spermicide as it is friggin OVERPOPULATION that is the main problem with all of this shit! I really doubt Jesus wants your unwanted child born into generations of perpetual poverty, my dear Catholic brethren so enjoy scintillating sex with your wife often –just please do it with a value –pack size box of Trojans perpetually by your bedside and teach the sons you already have to do the same.
I think we are heading into deep water and nobody can swim. We have been letting enviros sue their way to unbelivable control of the country for decades. We are paying huge amounts of extra money for fuel to other countries so the greens don't have to see an oil well or coal mine, we have let our forests burn to keep loggers from making a living, and distressing the enviros with trucks and dust.
The country needs jobs and working people...and not just making trails for the exclusive use of hikers either...real jobs producing food, energy, roads, houses.
Todd,
you really don't understand the theories behind finite resources and cost of extraction in regards to fossil fuels, do you? Instead, it is so much easier to place blame on a group that you don't like. Education is such a terrible thing to waste, don't you think?
Well, Jay, you've surely wasted yours. All those degrees and all you can do is look down your nose at people who don't agree with you. Todd's problem is that he's probably not a pseudo-intellectual pinhead trapped in cubicle. He actually has real opinions about the direction of the country, etc. Jay, someday you'll have to answer for your smug elitism. And that's when God will send you back to graduate school. Then again, maybe not. Graduate school is probably your idea of heaven. And that would be counterproductive from God's point of view. Hmmm, this is definitely a theological conundrum. What do you think, Jay? You're the smartest guy on this thread.
Comment By goof houlihan, 6-24-09With the debt that the past and current administration is racking, up, it won't be long before the bill has to be paid from the national forests and other resources anyway.
Sustainable government finance should be the first concern of any thinking environmentalist. If a healthy environment is the birthright of the children of our children's kids, well, so is a financially healthy nation.
But how can the administration feign concern for the long term sustainability of the planet when they propose a bloated government that cannot be sustained?
Sustainable lifestyle might start at home, but it's something that the government could render moot if it doesn't finance itself the same way.
Don't worry that will be the icing on the cake for Obama's bankrupting of America.
Anything he can do to wreck our economy he will get to soon enough.
Today he is wrecking our economy with Cap and (tax) Trade, tomorrow he is going to wreck our health care system.
You all don't want America to lead the world, well you will soon get your wish!