This is the nonsense I keep getting from the left in emails. I wrote back today and told them if they didn't like what Obama said last nite, then they should run in 2012.
We are disappointed that President Obama didn't finish last night's speech on the BP oil disaster and his vision of a clean energy future. He started to address the crisis facing our country, but he stopped short of providing the bold plans and specific immediate actions that our country needs to move forward.
Pres. Obama took on BP, but the real problem is that all the major oil companies — not just BP — have the same utterly inadequate plans to prevent major disasters caused by deep water drilling.
We absolutely need a transformative energy policy to tackle our addiction to oil and combat global warming which is accelerating, as we as a country do nothing. But Pres. Obama has left it to Sen. Lieberman to work out the special interest deals and we know how that worked out on health care.
With 2010 the hottest year on record1 and the BP oil disaster the worst environmental catastrophe in our nation's history, it is time for President Obama to propose a solution bold enough to solve the problem. If he is thwarted by special interests, he should name them and call out the elected officials who represent them.
Of course BP should pay, as the president suggested. And of course the Senate should pass global warming legislation as he exhorted them to. But that alone is not a serious response to this crisis.
Here's how we think President Obama should have ended his speech — with five bolder steps for real change:
1. The President should demand that every member of his administration sign a pledge not to work for the oil and gas industry or its lobbyists after leaving office. If they will not sign, they should resign.
2. The evidence is now indisputable that the damage from oil is potentially great. An earlier Congress and Administration passed and signed the Oil Pollution Act after the Exxon Valdez spill, but they got the numbers all wrong. The oil companies only pay a nickel a barrel, and a barrel goes for $80. A nickel for fixing the damages! Let's raise that immediately to $10 per barrel and demand that the oil companies, with record profits, not pass a penny of the cost on to the public.
3. The federal government should withhold billions in federal contracts to BP until the spill is contained, clean up is proceeding at an acceptable pace, and claimholders are being paid quickly and in full. If the president simply directs his EPA to proceed with discretionary debarment, then immediately BP is put on notice that there will be severe and immediate economic consequences if it continues its bad behavior such as blocking journalists from spill sites, slow-walking payments to gulf coast fishing communities whose livelihoods have been decimated, or dismissing temporary workers after photo ops.
4. There should be no more deepwater drilling until new permits are reviewed and pass the tests of independent examiners not beholden to the oil industry.
5. The Senate should pass global warming legislation that does what scientists say must be done to preserve our way of life — lower carbon emissions by 80% with zero loopholes and no deals. No loopholes for more coal, no incentives for more offshore oil drilling, and no backdoor deals to muzzle the Environmental Protection Agency. The president must challenge the Senate to debate such a bill and vote straight up, denying cover to Senators who are beholden to the oil and coal companies. Senators who want more of the same should be forced to vote no and let the public know where they stand.
We wish the President had used his speech2 to outline a plan such as the one above.
Instead, the president missed an opportunity to share where he stands on eliminating the liability cap that currently protects not just BP but all oil companies from paying the true costs of large oil spills. He didn't offer a specific number for what he intended to make BP pay. He mentioned climate only once in his entire speech and didn't address how the Kerry-Lieberman bill in the Senate will be strengthened in order to do what scientists say is necessary to slow climate change in a meaningful way.
Please join us in sending a message to the President: This is a time for bold, specific, and immediate action. Click here to sign your name to our petition asking the President to show real leadership in a time of crisis and implement the five steps outlined above.
Thank you for working for a better world.
Adam Quinn, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action |
