"To understand the true intent of Obama’s speech I begin with AlterNet senior environmental editor Tara Lohan’s article, “Obama Uses Major Climate Speech to Cheerlead for Natural Gas Industry; Keystone XL Fate Still Undecided.” She recognizes that “Obama’s speech will likely be met with cheers and jeers, even in the environmental community.” She first acknowledges the “cheer” part and then throws a solid 400–lb punch and points out the “hypocrisy of Obama’s allegiance to the gas industry and his pledge to fight climate change”: It’s hard to imagine that Obama has ever visited with communities who are in the crosshairs of natural gas extraction—a process that has proven already to be anything but clean and safe. And yet Obama promised to “strengthen our position as a top natural gas producer” and even to use our private sector to help other countries “transition to natural gas.” This translates to exporting fracking worldwide—a process already underway in Poland, South Africa, Australia and other countries. "
Posted on: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 03:53:50 +0000