Disillusioned Environmentalists Turn on Obama as Compromiser
Kate Davison/Greenpeace, via Agence France-Presse
Protesters unfurled a banner on Mount
Rushmore this week in a criticism of President Obama’s stance on climate
legislation.
For environmental activists like Jessica Miller, 31, the passage of a
major climate bill by the House last month should have been cause for
euphoria. Instead she felt cheated.
Ms. Miller, an activist with
Greenpeace, had worked hard on her own time to elect
Barack Obama because he directly and urgently addressed the issue
nearest her heart:
climate change.
But over the last few months, as the ambitious climate legislation was
watered down in the House without criticism from the president, Ms. Miller
became disillusioned. She worried that the bill had been rendered
meaningless — or had even undermined some goals Greenpeace had fought for.
And she felt that the man she had thought of as her champion seemed oddly
prone to compromise.
“I voted for the president, I canvassed for him, but we just haven’t seen
leadership from him,” said Ms. Miller, who rappelled down Mount Rushmore on
Wednesday with colleagues to unfurl a banner protesting what they called
President Obama’s acquiescence to the compromises. (They were arrested
and charged with trespassing.)
While most environmental groups formally supported the House bill, the
road to passage proved unsettling for the movement. Friends of the Earth,
Greenpeace and
Public Citizen opposed the bill; members of some other groups privately
berated their leaders for going along with it. And some, like Ms. Miller,
have shifted to open protest.
Few politicians make the transition from campaign trail to White House
without sacrificing a few starry-eyed supporters along the way, of course.
And Mr. Obama’s early record on environmental issues suggests that he is
more aggressive than any of his predecessors in supporting causes like
combating global warming and shifting to renewable energy sources.
In an interview last month, Mr. Obama defended the House bill as “a good
start.”
Referring to European leaders and others who said the bill was not strong
enough, Mr. Obama said, “We don’t want to make the best the enemy of the
good.”
He went on: “By putting a framework in place that is realistic, that is
commonsensical, that protects consumers from huge spikes in electricity
costs while setting real, meaningful targets — what we are doing is changing
the political conversation and the incentive structures for businesses in
this country.”
Still, the compromises that were made to win House approval by a
219-to-212 vote have left the president’s “green” base in some disarray.
For some environmental groups and individuals, the bill’s perceived
shortcomings — like generous pollution allowances to
coal utilities and the usurping of the federal
Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory authority over carbon
emissions — were more than mere setbacks.
“This bill was worse than what we were expecting, even knowing we
wouldn’t get the best bill,” said Nick Berning, a spokesman for the group
Friends of the Earth.
The overriding of the E.P.A.’s regulatory authority over carbon emissions
was particularly startling, Mr. Berning said.
The president clearly shares the blame, he said, adding, “He is not
engaged enough.”
On the campaign trail, Mr. Obama used forceful and direct language on
climate change, calling carbon emissions from human activity an “immediate
threat” to the climate. His environmental critics say they miss that urgent
tone.
“He was far too quiet during the House debate,” said Jessy Tolkan, the
executive director of the
Energy Action Coalition, a youth group in Washington that campaigns for
clean energy. “He needs to live up to the promises he made to us when we
poured our heart and soul into electing him.”
Ms. Tolkan said that her organization was hoping to take that point home
to the
Democratic Party before the midterm elections. “Those who played a
leadership role in weakening this bill will feel the wrath of youth
political power across the country,” she said. “2010 is not that far away.”
Democratic lawmakers have also drawn fire. Jill Stein, co-founder of the
Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy
Communities, which usually lobbies on local environmental issues, said
she felt “betrayed” by the Democratic-controlled House. “If this is a
political reality, we have to change our political leaders,” Ms. Stein said.
In a statement, Representative
Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California and an architect of the bill,
defended the legislation. “We worked hard to craft legislation that would
achieve our environmental goals while addressing the regional concerns of
members of Congress,” he said. Politicians are not the only targets of
dejected environmentalists.
The Clean, a collaborative grass-roots groups that encourages the use of
renewable fuels, posted a critique of the climate bill on its Web site that
asked at one point: “Why has this energy legislation become so bad?”
It blames “corporate polluters” for spending tens of millions of dollars
on lobbying, but environmental groups, too.
“Several of the national ‘green’ groups decided to cooperate with
industry and members of Congress in getting a bill through,” the Web site
reads. “N.R.D.C., the
Environmental Defense Fund and Pew all sat at the table and, whether or
not it was their intent to do so, provided ‘cover’ for these bad policies.”
Daniel A. Lashof, director of the climate center for the
Natural Resources Defense Council, an
advocacy group in Washington, said that if his group had not come to the
table, there might not have been any climate-change legislation at all. And
he pointed out that Congressional support for environmental action was at a
record high.
“We are not saying this is perfect,” Mr. Lashof said, “but we cannot hope
for stronger environmental champions in Congress. If not now, when?”
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