At a presidential campaign debate at the University of
Richmond in the UR School of Law building on Wednesday, global warming and
energy resources became two dominant issues for representatives of President
Barack Obama’s campaign and his challenger, Mitt Romney.
Campaign representative for President Obama, Kenneth Berlin,
said President Obama is encouraging a move towards a “clean energy economy” by
providing federal financial support. Or as conservatives like to call,
government subsidies.[1]
Mitt Romney’s campaign representative at the campaign
debate, Jeffrey Holmstead, noted that the Obama administration has reduced the
production of oil and natural gas on public lands as well as created a more
difficult entrepreneurial environment for coal-burning power plants to survive.[2]
All of these claims are of course true and precisely the point.
Said Holmstead, “If you protect the environment in the wrong
way, you can have a tremendous impact on jobs.”[3]
First of all, this is clearly where liberals and progressives
diverge decisively with conservatives. Reducing the use of fossil fuels as
sources of power, especially coal[4],
is precisely protecting the environment in the “right way.” The world cannot
simply conserve its way or advance enough technological breakthroughs at
present to protect the environment from further harm.
Furthermore, the conservative viewpoint regarding jobs
versus the environment is as short-sighted as it is narrow. The displacement of
the fossil fuel industry will be counterbalanced by the rise of the clean
energy sector, producing more jobs than the fossil fuel industry. Thus, the
whole jobs argument forwarded by conservatives is moot. And to add the cherry
on top of the cake, the jobs will actually advance a better world!
Lastly, even if reducing America’s carbon footprint in the
wake of China’s and India’s carbon clouds won’t do much good, do two wrongs
make a right, especially when America has the technology and popular will to
make the clean energy transition?
America once saw itself as a leader and far-sighted enough
to be willing to make sacrifices in the present to reap substantial benefits in
the future. Essentially, this is what President Obama represents, only a lot
less pain in the present with just as much reward in the future.
President Obama understands America needs to make changes in
the present to have a future worth speaking of. I can only hope most Americans
feel the same this November.
[1] http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/virginia-politics/2012/oct/11/tdmet02-representatives-for-obama-romney-debate-en-ar-2273859/
[2] http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/virginia-politics/2012/oct/11/tdmet02-representatives-for-obama-romney-debate-en-ar-2273859/
[3] http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/virginia-politics/2012/oct/11/tdmet02-representatives-for-obama-romney-debate-en-ar-2273859/
[4] http://www.opednews.com/articles/Demise-Of-The-Coal-Industr-by-Jack-Swint-120816-260.html
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