Environmentalists: Where's the 'Guy We Thought We Were Electing President?’
Environmental activists opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline protest near the State Department in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Oct. 7, 2011. (Photo from the tarsandsaction.org website)
“We need—somehow—to find that guy we thought we were electing president. And we have to figure out, where they are holding him, and release him,” said environmental activist Bill McKibben. At that point, the crowd broke into cries of “Free Obama.”
McKibben, an author and scholar who founded an international grassroots campaign against climate change, has emerged as the leader of the ongoing pipeline protests. In his speech at the Washington rally, he quoted Obama’s campaign promise to “end the tyranny of oil” and to “have the most transparent government the world has ever seen.”
McKibben told CNSNews that the Keystone pipeline – which, when finished, would bring crude oil from Alberta, Canada to Texas oil refineries – “is the biggest decision the president faces this fall and it’s entirely on him. Congress isn’t in the way. And we will find out whether he meant it when he said we need to fight global warming and have a transparent government.”
The U.S. State Department has been considering TransCanada’s request to extend the pipeline for three years, and it faces a year-end deadline to decide whether the project is in the U.S. national interest. The State Department in August found that the project would have "no significant impact on the environment,” but opponents disagree.
And no matter what the State Department recommends, activists insist that the final decision ultimately is up to the president.
And no matter what the State Department recommends, activists insist that the final decision ultimately is up to the president.
“If you tell people that you’re going to do something and you have a chance to do it and then you don’t—people aren’t going to trust you in the same way anymore, right? That’s just how it works. There’s a sense of fraught anticipation. We’ll see what he does. It’s on him,” McKibben said.
The Keystone XL project does have the support of another Obama constituency – labor unions. As CNSNews.com reported, union leaders say the pipeline project would create tens of thousands of jobs for union workers and pump billions of dollars into the U.S. economy without spending any federal money.
At Friday's hearing, union representatives and oil industry officials urged the State Department to approve the pipeline extension.
At Friday's hearing, union representatives and oil industry officials urged the State Department to approve the pipeline extension.
When asked by CNSNews.com whether it was fair to say that environmentalists are growing disillusioned with Obama, Maura Cowley of the Energy Action Coalition replied, “Absolutely.”
“President Obama said, ‘Let’s be the generation that ends the tyranny of oil in this country’ and ‘let’s clean up Washington,’ and his policies are doing neither of those things, and frankly his base is watching—we represent 200,000 young voters.
“We don’t think he’s pushing and being the leader that we elected,” Cowley said. “We just have to take a step back and ask ourselves, ‘Is the president of the United States doing all that he can do to usher in a clean energy society?’ And right now the answer is no.”
Emily Sarri, the executive director of the Maryland Student Climate Coalition and a former Obama campaigner said, “He (Obama) is taking us for granted. I know so many environmentalists who got their organizing training on the Obama campaign. They we’re so excited that his campaign was all about community organizing. They were so thrilled when he got elected—that he acknowledged climate change and promised to do something about it—and he’s completely disappointed us three years later. There’s absolutely nothing happening.
“If he doesn’t do anything, he’s just intensifying the inevitable, and he’s not going to have our support in 2012.”
Caroline Selle, who heads the Student Environmental Action Coalition at St. Mary’s College, agreed that Obama is losing support: “A lot of people who were willing to campaign for him are leaving, and I think were leaving by the thousands. He’s losing his grassroots support, which is why he got elected the first time around—so I think he should be scared.”
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