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The Obama Administration’s Global Warming Legacy: Going with the Flow and the Politics of Failure

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Looking Back on President Barack Obama’s Legacy

Abstract

George A. Gonzalez analyzes Obama’s program for attacking the problem of greenhouse gas emissions from the nation’s power plants. Gonzalez uncovers a flaw in this 2014 policy. The flaw is that implementation of the policy relies on state governments who are less interested in reducing emission than in economic growth. This federalism requirement was a part of the history of the Environment Protection Agency. Accordingly, Obama’s greenhouse emission policy is more symbolic than a real reform. The dominant figure in the making of environmental policy has been the business community. Allowing the states to implement said environment policy undermined the policy. Firstly, the 30 percent target reduction from power plants was meager as utilities are switching to natural gas and will likely achieve this target without government intervention. Secondly, the Obama administration’s reliance on the states to achieve even this modest goal communicates that the administration was not interested in reducing greenhouse gasses, but in managing, assuaging the public’s concerns over climate change. Thus, the administration’s policies on global warming were symbolic, not substantive.

Part of this chapter was published as “Is Obama’s 2014 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan Symbolic?: The Creation of the US EPA and a Reliance on the States,” Capitalism Nature Socialism Vol. 26, No. 2 (January 2015) pp. 92–104.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “Nailing the Coffin on Climate Relief,” New York Times, October 11, 2017, A22.

  2. 2.

    George A. Gonzalez, Urban Sprawl, Global Warming, and the Empire of Capital (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2009), Energy and Empire: The U.S. Politics of Nuclear and Solar Power in the United States (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2012), and Energy, the Modern State, and the American World System (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2018).

  3. 3.

    George A. Gonzalez, Energy and the Politics of the North Atlantic (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2013).

  4. 4.

    Till Neeff, “How Many will Attend Paris? UNFCCC COP Participation Patterns 1995–2015,” Environmental Science & Policy 31 (August 2013): 157–159; David Jolly and Chris Buckley, “U.S. and China Find Convergence on Climate Issue,” New York Times, Nov. 22, 2013, A3; David Jolly,“Deals at Climate Meeting Advance Global Effort,” New York Times, Nov. 24, 2013, A14.

  5. 5.

    George A. Gonzalez, American Empire and the Canadian Oil Sands (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).

  6. 6.

    Coral Davenport, and Steven Erlanger, “U.S. Hopes Boom in Natural Gas Can Curb Putin,” New York Times, March 6, 2014, A1. Also see “Natural Gas as a Diplomatic Tool,” New York Times, March 7, 2014, A24; Clifford Krauss, “U.S. Gas Tantalizes Europe, but It’s Not a Quick Fix,” New York Times, April 8, 2014, B1; Stanley Reed and James Kanter, “For a European Energy Chief, a Difficult Alliance,” New York Times, April 28, 2014, B1; Rick Gladstone, “Russia and Iran Reported in Talks on Energy Deal Worth Billions,” New York Times, April 29, 2014, A12; Jim Yardley, and Jo Becker, “How Putin Forged a Pipeline Deal That Derailed,” New York Times, December 31, 2014, A1.

  7. 7.

    Clifford Krauss, “U.S. Boom in Natural Gas Could Ripple From the Arctic to Africa,” New York Times, October 18, 2017, B3.

  8. 8.

    Ayesha Roscoe, “Jackson to Step Down as Obama’s Environmental Chief,” Reuters, December 27, 2012. Web.

  9. 9.

    See Murray Edelman, The Symbolic Uses of Politics, 2nd ed. (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1985).

  10. 10.

    Harvey Blatt, America’s Environmental Report Card: Are We Making the Grade? 2nd ed. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011), 180–181; “The End of Clean Energy Subsidies?” New York Times, May 6, 2012, SR12.

  11. 11.

    Rachel Weiner, “Solyndra, explained,” Washingon Post, June 1, 2012. Web.

  12. 12.

    Bill Vlasic, “U.S. Sets High Long-Term Fuel Efficiency Rules for Automakers,” New York Times, August 29, 2012, B1. The current Trump administration is revising the Obama automotive fuel efficiency rule downward. Hiroko Tabuchi, Brad Plumer and Coral Davenport, “Plan to Loosen Emission Limits Disputes California’s Right to Set Its Own,” New York Times, April 28, 2018, A15.

  13. 13.

    Clifford Krauss, “Pipeline Plan was Begun Amid Dim U.S. Forecasts,” New York Times, November 7, 2015, A12.

  14. 14.

    George A. Gonzalez, “Is Obama’s 2014 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan Symbolic?: The Creation of the U.S. EPA and a Reliance on the States,” Capitalism Nature Socialism 26, no. 2 (2015): 92–104.

  15. 15.

    Justin Gillis, and Henry Fountain, “Trying to Reclaim Leadership on Climate Change.” New York Times, June 2, 2014, A14; Clifford Krauss, and Diane Cardwell, “Hopes Modest for Carbon Rules.” New York Times, June 3, 2014, B1; Porter, Eduardo. 2014. “A Paltry Start in Curbing Global Warming.” The New York Times, June 4, B1.

  16. 16.

    Coral Davenport, and Peter Baker. 2014. “Taking Page From Health Care Act, Obama Climate Plan Relies on States.” New York Times, June 3, A16.

  17. 17.

    Ibid.

  18. 18.

    Stanley Reed, “High Energy Costs Plaguing Europe,” International Herald Tribune, December 27, 2012. Web; Nelson D. Schwartz, “Boom in Energy Spurs Industry in the Rust Belt,” New York Times, September 9, 2014, A1.

  19. 19.

    Matthew A. Cahn.1995. Environmental Deceptions: The Tension between Liberalism and Environmental Policymaking in the United States. Albany: State University of New York Press.

  20. 20.

    Michael Useem. 1984. The Inner Circle: Large Corporations and the Rise of Business Political Activity in the U.S. and U.K. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  21. 21.

    Clyde W. Barrow. 1993. Critical Theories of the State (Madison: Wisconsin University Press), Chap. 1, and Toward a Critical Theory of States: The Poulantzas-Miliband Debate After Globalization (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2016) G. William Domhoff. 2014. Who Rules America? 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.

  22. 22.

    See “The Democrats Stand Up to the Kochs.” New York Times, March 11, 2014, A20; Martin Gilens, and Benjamin I. Page, “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens.” Perspectives on Politics 12, no. 3 (2014): 564–581. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592714001595; Jacques Leslie. 2014. “The True Cost of Hidden Money.” New York Times, June 16, A19; Gordon Lafer, The One Percent Solution: How Corporations Are Remaking America One State at a Time (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2017).

  23. 23.

    Dennis McLellan. 2012. “Roy L. Ash Dies at 93; Former Litton President, Budget Director.” Los Angeles Times, January 12. Web.

  24. 24.

    Ronald Sullivan. 1995. “George Baker, Harvard Dean and U.S. Adviser, Dies at 91.” The New York Times, January 28. Web.

  25. 25.

    Charles Ashman. 1974. Connally: The Adventures of Big Bad John. New York: William Morrow & Company, 70–71.

  26. 26.

    Kenneth N. Gilpin. 1994. “Frederick Kappel, 92, Ex-Chief of AT&T and Former U.S. Aide.” New York Times, November 12. Web.

  27. 27.

    “Richart Paget, 78; Helped Reorganize Federal Government,” New York Times, January 9, 1991. Web.

  28. 28.

    Albin Krebs, “Walter Thayer, 78, Herald Tribune President, Dies.” New York Times, March 5, 1989. Web; E.J. Kahn. Jock: The Life and Times of John Hay Whitney (New York: Doubleday, 1981).

  29. 29.

    Brooks J. Flippen. Nixon and the Environment (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2000 [2012]).

  30. 30.

    John Quarles, Cleaning Up America: An Insider’s View of the Environmental Protection Agency (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976), xiv.

  31. 31.

    Ibid., xii.

  32. 32.

    Ibid., 13.

  33. 33.

    The Ash Council Memo can be found: http://www2.epa.gov/aboutepa/ash-council-memo

  34. 34.

    Dennis L. Soden, The Environmental Presidency (Albany: State University of New York Press 1999); Tarla Rai Peterson, Green Talk in the White House: The Rhetorical Presidency Encounters Ecology (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2004).

  35. 35.

    According to one historian, by the late 1960s “over eighty federal agencies dealt with pollution.” Flippen. Nixon and the Environment, 85.

  36. 36.

    The Ash Council Memo can be found: http://www2.epa.gov/aboutepa/ash-council-memo

  37. 37.

    Emily Yehle, “Drastic Enforcement Cases’ Heralded Arrival of EPA 40 Years Ago,” The New York Times, December 2, 2010. Web.

  38. 38.

    John C. Mollenkopf. 1983. The Contested City. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.; Jonas, Andrew E. G., and David Wilson, eds. 1999. The Urban Growth Machine: Critical Perspectives Two Decades Later. Albany: State University of New York Press.; Logan, John R., and Harvey L. Molotch, Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007 [1987]).

  39. 39.

    George A. Gonzalez, The Politics of Air Pollution: Urban Growth, Ecological Modernization, and Symbolic Inclusion (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005); George A. Gonzalez, “The U.S. Politics of Water Pollution Policy: Urban Growth, Ecological Modernization, and the Vending of Technology.” Capitalism Nature Socialism 24, no. 4 (2013): 105–121.

  40. 40.

    Owen Temby. 2013. “Trouble in Smogville: The Politics of Toronto’s Air Pollution during the 1950s.” Journal of Urban History 39 (4): 669–689. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0096144212441710

  41. 41.

    Scott H. Dewey, “Don’t Breathe the Air”: Air Pollution and U.S. Environmental Politics, 1945–1970 (College Station: Texas A& M University Press, 2000).

  42. 42.

    Douglas S. Eisinger, Smog Check: Science, Federalism, and the Politics of Clean Air (Washington, DC: Resources of the Future, 2010), 11.

  43. 43.

    Lisa Friedman and Brad Plumer, “E.P.A. Announces Bid to Roll Back Emissions Policy,” New York Times, October 10, 2017, A1; “Nailing the Coffin on Climate Relief ”; Lisa Friedmen, “Carbon Dioxide Is Harmless, Says Trump Pick for Environmental Adviser,” New York Times, October 14, 2017, A9, and “For U.S., Climate Talks Are Awkward Moment,” New York Times, October 19, 2017, A10; “Mr. Trump’s Conflicted Regulators,” New York Times, October 18, 2017, A26.

  44. 44.

    Peter Baker and Coral Davenport, “President Revives Two Oil Pipelines Thwarted Under Obama,” New York Times, January 25, 2017, A1.

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  1. University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA

    George A. Gonzalez

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  1. Department of Political Science, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, USA

    Wilbur C. Rich

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Gonzalez, G.A. (2019). The Obama Administration’s Global Warming Legacy: Going with the Flow and the Politics of Failure. In: Rich, W. (eds) Looking Back on President Barack Obama’s Legacy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01545-9_9

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