If Barack Obama and David Axelrod are really concerned about the climate crisis, they can fess up to their culpability — and demand change from Joe Biden.

This summer has emerged as the warmest in recorded history, following last year’s record-breaking levels of global fossil fuel consumption which continue to escalate the climate crisis. Amid this alarming scenario, former President Barack Obama and his top White House strategist, David Axelrod, have taken to public platforms to decry climate inaction, despite their past contributions to the exacerbation of this crisis. The pair chose to escalate fossil fuel production during their time in power rather than prioritize climate policy, even as they enjoyed a significant influx of campaign donations from the oil and gas industry. Obama’s 2018 boast about the unprecedented fossil fuel boom under his presidency, advised by Axelrod, highlights the contradiction between their past actions and their current advocacy for climate action.

While they now publicly advocate for climate policy, their refusal to acknowledge their past contributions to the climate crisis stands in stark contrast. This posturing risks rendering their recent statements as mere lip service, undermining the accountability needed for the United States to adhere to its climate commitments. This contradiction was underscored this week when President Joe Biden acknowledged climate change as an “existential threat,” but refrained from declaring a climate emergency or limiting fossil fuel extraction. This strategy, initially adopted by Obama and Axelrod, could potentially be reformed if they were to openly accept their past roles in escalating the crisis and used their significant influence to advocate for stronger action from Biden and other Democratic leaders to adhere to the Paris Agreement.

  • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
    91·
    1 year ago

    Yep, and the harmful policies from moderate Dems have continued

    As the United States pours billions into the project of capturing carbon, though, it has few plans in place to ensure this gargantuan build-out of new infrastructure performs the heroic tasks that climate models say it will need to.

    There are also few guardrails against letting polluters have a say in how, exactly, that infrastructure gets built. Last summer, the Texas Railroad Commission, or RRC—the state’s oil and gas regulator—applied to the Environmental Protection Agency for the ability to oversee a key part of this process: the wells where carbon dioxide gets injected into rock formations deep underground for storage. Granting the application would mean that rather than the EPA making sure the wells are safe, the responsibility would switch to the RRC.

    The Biden EPA has encouraged states to take charge of the permitting process, inviting them to apply for $50 million provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act to administer that process. But last week, Texas Representatives Lloyd Doggett and Joaquin Castro, both Democrats, penned a letter to the EPA encouraging it to reject the RRC’s application.

    “It would simplify matters to just send money directly to Exxon and ask them to self-report if they feel like,” Doggett told me over the phone, noting the uncapped donations the commission’s entirely Republican members receive from the fossil fuel industry.