Updated 2024
While Trump and the republicans deserve no praise (see Beware the Trump Administration), that should not obscure the fact that the democrats have been disastrous for the environment. For the environment Biden has appointed Kerry to fight who said needed technology has not been invented yet (utter nonsense!), not changed massive fossil fuel subsidies at all, expanded fossil fuel drilling far beyond what even Trump proposed, is unaware or dishonest in talking about electric vehicles, and regards global warming as just one of many minor considerations he has to make token gestures for. Democrats still eagerly look for excuses to fail. See The Democratic Party is the More Effective of Two Evils and Beware the Biden Administration.
Consider Obama's real record.
The democrats led a massive expansion of nuclear energy and opened up off shore drilling three times. Corn Ethanol and "clean coal" continue their renaissance. DeChristopher, a whistle blower for an illegal sale of public lands to the fossil fuel industry, has been prosecuted and sentenced to two years by the Obama DOJ while everyone else who planned and executed the illegal action got a pass. Also getting free passes were BP for the eleven who died at BP's Deepwater Horizon and Massey Coal after 29 coal miners died because hundreds of safety violations were overlooked. Despite some small renewable energy investments such as a solar light for a bus station in Georgia, most of our tax money still goes to fossil fuels rather than renewable energy. About 45% of the "environmental stimulus" went to tax breaks. This comes at a time when failure to adopt as other countries have already started to do - some for decades now - will have severe consequences.
The White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, -which Obama completely controlled - has weakened more than 80% of the rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency. This is worse than eight years of the Bush administration.(3)
Karl Moore points out,
Of all the environmental disaster we face, the biggest may be Obama's appointment of Ken Salazar as Secretary of the Interior. He voted against increased fuel efficiency standards for the U.S. automobile fleet - voted to end protection for offshore oil drilling off of Florida's coast - voted to allow the Army Corps of Engineers to ignore global warming impacts in their water development projects - voted against the repeal of tax breaks for Exxon-Mobil - voted to support subsidies to ranchers and other users of public forest and range lands - threatened to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when its scientists determined the black-tailed prairie dog may be endangered - fought efforts to increase protection for endangered species and the environment in the Farm Bill, and is ending wolf protection in Wyoming.
Karl Moore also said,
When it comes to bioenergy, the stances of President Obama and Governor Romney are virtually the same. Both candidates have come together on an aggressively pro-biomass and biofuels platform that ignores the resulting increase in lung disease from particulate matter emissions, the contribution to runaway climate change, the watershed degradation, the forest destruction, and the disproportionate negative impacts on low income Americans and communities of color...This President's ABYSMAL record on environmental protections and consumer protections far exceeds that of ANY past President in my lifetime.
Even when the EPA proposed minor actions to limit blowing up mountains and other environmental disasters, they all become effective in the distant future when they can be cancelled. The Tar Sands pipeline and delay of smog regulations recommended by Obama's own EPA stand out. Ignoring his own EPA recommendations on smog will cost - again according to his own EPA - 7,200 deaths 11,000 emergency room visits and 38,000 acute cases of asthma each year. And yet Obama prosecutes environmental whistleblowers more than any other Presidential Administration in the history of our Republic.
President Obama stopped the XL Pipeline only after it failed commercially. He waited until he was a lame duck president and the republicans controlled both houses before enacting mild environmental change which was immediately enveloped in litigation.
Coal and fracking companies do not deserve a continuing series of good deals at the expense of the American taxpayers. The New Progressive Alliance has written the Obama Bureau of Land Management in June 2012, May 2013, August 2013, June 2015, and August 2016 on this matter. In February 2017 under Trump now we wrote the BLM yet again on the same subject, this time on the Spring Creek Coal getting another taxpayer supported sweetheart day paid for by the American taxpayers. For a full text of all our Public Comments see here.
When we complained before on these and many other environmental problems Obama refused to address, some democrats asked if this was productive and repeated the mantra that republicans would be worse and we must not endanger electing democrats. This bury our head in the sand policy of abandoning the democratic base resulted in republican control of the presidency, both houses of congress, and most state legislatures. The New Progressive Alliance protested the Trump Presidency on the same issues we protested the Obama Presidency.
Hilary Clinton (and Kerry after her) outright and deeply lied while Secretary of State about the XL Pipeline not affecting the environment. Bill Clinton backed the XL Pipeline. Hilary Clinton had many campaign contributors invest heavily in the pipeline. She also forced fracking upon the world. See Beware the Clintons.
Again, no defense of Trump or republicans, but it will take far more than rhetoric to prevent disaster to future generations. Obama also postponed his already weak environmental actions until his last year when republicans had their greatest majority and his very modest actions could be repealed by executive order. Weather and physics - not excuses and negotiations - will determine what happens with climate change. As has been pointed out and repeatedly proved, nature bats last.
The reason we have so many continuously updated references covering decades is to show this is settled and has been obvious for quite awhile.
For articles like this covering different areas on the environment with over 2,500 references see https://www.newprogs.org/the_environment
References:
1-Obama Gave US Sovereignty to BP
2-Report Highlights Obama's Broken Environmental Promises
3-Did the White House double-cross its supporters on the smog rule?
4-Greens See Politics Trumping Science as EPA Delays Chemical Assessment
5-Greens: Obama campaign hire 'stinks'
6-BP gets OK to dump mercury into Lake Michigan
7-Obama Rejected EPA Smog Standards After Intense Lobbying
8-7,200 Deaths and Environmental Betrayal: A Small Price to Pay for Corporate Partnership
9-Report: White House Pressured Scientists to Underestimate BP Spill Size
10-Carcinogenic Dioxin Set Free: EPA Kneels to Monsanto and Big Agriculture
11-Report Highlights Obama's Broken Environmental Promises
12-Frackers Win With Obama’s New Greenhouse Gas Rule
13-Obama Knocks Romney for Saying True Things About Coal
14-EPA Lets Energy Firms Pollute America's Underground Water Supply
15-Big Oil's Billions in Tax Perks Survive Fiscal Cliff Deal
16-After a Powerful Lobbyist Intervenes, EPA Reverses Stance on Polluting Texas County’s Water
17-Environmentalists diss State Dept.'s Keystone pipeline review
18-State Department Keystone XL Study Done by Oil Industry-Connected Firm with Big Tobacco, Fracking Ties
19-Obama Sells Government to Monsanto: Monsanto to Get "Blanket Immunity"
20-Obama's Energy Pick Has Deep Ties to Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Energy
21-Breaking: Obama EPA Shut Down Weatherford, TX Shale Gas Water Contamination Study
22-WHITE HOUSE APPROVES RADICAL RADIATION CLEANUP ROLLBACK - Civilian Cancer Deaths Expected to Skyrocket Following Radiological Incidents
23-Obama Approves Raising Permissible Levels of Nuclear Radiation in Drinking Water. Civilian Cancer Deaths Expected to Skyrocket
24-Former EPA Climate Adviser Rips Obama Over Environmental Regulations - Lisa Heinzerling says the White House has blocked the agency from implementing tough rules.
25-Court ruling: Obama administration overlooked fracking risks
26-Obama Approves Raising Permissible Levels of Nuclear Radiation in Drinking Water. Civilian Cancer Deaths Expected to Skyrocket
27-Energy secretary: Obama committed to role for coal - Energy secretary: Obama serious about coal having a role in 'all of the above' strategy for US
28-EPA sued for scrapping livestock data collection - Environmental, animal rights groups sue EPA for dropping plan to gather livestock farm data
29-EPA outcry massively increase allowable herbicide levels in food, despite public
30-Obama Leaves Monsanto in Charge of Ending Hunger in Africa
31-EPA abandons investigation into fracking pollution
32-EPA Pushes Back Fracking Impact Study to 2016
33-EPA’s Abandoned Wyoming Fracking Study One Retreat of Many
34-Cutting Corners, Cutting Costs, Creating Cancer: For Future Reactor Meltdowns, EPA Means “Extra Pollution Allowed”
35-Obama Administration Proposal Weakens Endangered Species Protections - Rule Would Relax Requirements on Federal Agencies to Carefully Account for and Track Impacts on Nation's Most Imperiled Species
36-INVESTIGATION: The Flip Side Of Obama’s Keystone XL Delay
Even as President Obama cast a veneer of caution over the Keystone pipeline’s northern half, he quietly expedited dozens of similar projects.
37-EPA halted 'fracking' case after gas company protested
38-Just Like Bush: US Under Obama, Thumbs Its Nose at the World on Climate Change
39-EPA approves 'Agent Orange' pesticide
41-Report chastises U.S. EPA for retreat on Range pollution charges
43-Days Before Obama Announced CO2 Rule, Exxon Awarded Gulf of Mexico Oil Leases
44-Faced w/ Global Warming Threat, Obama fudges EPA Carbon Reduction
45-BP Wins Big In Offshore Oil Drilling Lease Auction
46-New Offshore Oil Plan Could Be 'Game Over' for Climate
47-Obama Administration Secretly Weakening EPA Rules
48-Meeting Logs: Obama White House Quietly Coddling Big Oil on “Bomb Trains” Regulations
49-Green Journos Seeing Red Over EPA’s Climate Rule Roll-Out
51-Oil Is Back! A Global Warming President Presides over a Drill-Baby-Drill America
52-Cashing In On Carbon: How Taxpayer Dollars Greenwash Dirty Energy
53-Green Journos Seeing Red Over EPA’s Climate Rule Roll-Out
54-How Hillary Clinton’s State Department sold fracking to the world
55-Feds To Resume Oil And Gas Leases Despite Fracking Report That Raised "Grave Concerns"
56-State Department Approves Illegal Scheme for Doubling Tar Sands Flowing through the Great Lakes
57-Environmentalists Say EPA Failed to Defuse ‘Ticking Time Bombs’
59-Here are the Senate Democrats who voted to move forward on building the Keystone pipeline
60-New Obama State Dept Top Energy Diplomat Amos Hochstein A Former Marathon Oil Lobbyist
61-Pity the Planet: Environmental Agencies Are Failing Us
62-Obama Signals Keystone XL "No" on Colbert Report As Enbridge "KXL Clone" He Permitted Opens
63-The Environmental Threat of Atlantic Drilling Is Too Great
64-Obama Plans to Allow Drilling on America’s East Coast
66-Why Is the 'Climate President' Approving More Oil Drilling?
67-Obama’s Bipolar Approach To Energy And Climate Change
68-With Friends Like the Obama Administration, Endangered Species Don't Need Enemies
69-A Paler Shade of Green: Obama and the Environment
70-EPA Says It ‘Did Its Job’ Despite Not Telling Flint Its Water Was Contaminated
72-Obama Backs Oil Industry’s Push to Drill Offshore Near U.S. East Coast
75-Obama proposing clean-water cuts amid Flint outcry
77-During Paris Climate Summit, Obama Signed Exxon-, Koch-Backed Bill Expediting Pipeline Permits
78-EPA stayed silent on Flint’s tainted water
82-The Obama administration is about to kneecap its own efforts to reform coal leasing
83-This Is How Corruption Works: A Hillary Clinton Example
84-A Day Late and a Dollar Short: Mr. Obama Goes to Flint
85-Democrats cover up role of Obama administration in Flint water crisis
86-EPA memo: Flint not worth going 'out on a limb for'
88-As Dakota Access Protests Escalated, Obama Admin OK’d Same Company for Two Pipelines to Mexico
89-Decades of EPA deception and Senatorial corruption
91-Feds Find Offshore Fracking in the Pacific Would Have No 'Significant' Environmental Impact
93-Hijacking the Environmental MovementJust Say No to 350
95-EPA Plans to Allow Unlimited Dumping of Fracking Wastewater in the Gulf of Mexico
97-Top EPA official: 'D---heads' in White House resisted regulating fracking
101-Obama Energy Czar: Actually, Fracking Is Pretty Good For The Environment
103-Wikileak: Clinton Told Oil Majors Environmentalism Is Russian Hoax
104-President Obama Spent ‘Unprecedented’ Billions on Fossil Fuel Projects Around the World
105-President Obama's Lethal Climate Legacy
106-Top Democrats Ally With Oil and Gas Industry to Fight Colorado Anti-Fracking Ballot Measures
107-Betraying Water Protectors, Obama Set to Approve Dakota Access Pipeline
108-Federal Judge Orders Water Delivery to Flint Residents
110-EPA's late changes to fracking study downplay risk of drinking water pollution
111-Obama’s Hidden Role in Worsening Climate Change
113-Obama’s Hidden Role In Worsening Climate Change
114-Dems damp down hopes for climate change agenda
115-Climate Crisis Made Worse By Presidential Mis-Leadership Throughout This Century
116-Democratic Leaders Failed Their First Big Test on Climate - Kicking the can down the road appears to be a bipartisan sport in Washington
117-The Democrats Are Climate Deniers If the Democrats really believed the science on climate change, they'd be offering far more radical proposals.
year. An investigation shows how it could be making workers sick and contaminating communities across America
118-Greenpeace Says Biden Tax Plan for Fossil Fuel Subsidies 'Simply Not Good Enough' "Not a dime of our tax dollars should go towards corporations that poison our communities and wreck our climate."
119-The Liberals Have Mastered The Art of Changeless Change
120-The secret playbook behind Justin Trudeau’s success (YouTube)
121-They Knew: How the U.S. Government Helped Cause the Climate Crisis - James Gustave Speth has been calling for action on climate since serving in the White House in the 1970s. In an e360 interview, he talks about his new book, which chronicles how U.S. administrations repeatedly failed to act in response to scientists’ increasingly dire warnings.
122-Biden Approves More Oil and Gas Drilling on Public lands than Trump
123-Revealed: Biden administration was not legally bound to auction gulf drilling rights - Justice department admits a previous ruling did not force the detonation of what environmentalists call ‘huge carbon bomb’
124-US urges domestic oil producers to raise output
125-
126-
