For Obama and climate change, Denali is 'denial' spelled sideways
The president goes to Alaska to brag about his record on climate change -- right after approving Shell's disastrous plan to drill for oil in the Arctic.
This week, President Obama is in a state of Denali...also known as Alaska. This is continuing in Obama's lame duck tour of places he'd never have visited if still facing election...the non-swing states of Alaska and North Dakota, or even Kenya, the place where our next president Donald Trump still seems to think he was born. On the eve of his Alaska trip, Obama jolted every Fox News neuron in America by announcing that his administration had taken it upon itself to change the name of North America's highest peak from Mt. McKinley -- for that solidly pro-business GOP president of days gone by -- to the original native name, Mt. Denali.
The controversy over McKinley/Denali is probably an intentional ploy to divert attention from the real state that Obama is spending time in -- a state of denial, which ironically is Denali spelled sideways, sort of. You see, the president says the real reason to visit Alaska is to show the world his resolve in fighting climate change, amid this land of disappearing sea ice and melting glaciers. That would be great, if Obama hadn't completely trashed that commitment earlier this summer, when his administration gave Shell the OK to drill offshore for oil in the frigid Arctic waters, an endeavor that carries a huge risk of an environmental catastrophe.
Shell's first attempt at drilling for oil in the waters off Alaska, two summers ago, was an unmitigated disaster, plagued by mishaps large and small, punctuated by the dramatic wreck of its rig the Kulluk at the end of the season. Environmentalists say the likelihood an an accident on the scale of 2010's BP oil spill in the Gulf is not only higher off Alaska -- thanks to the frigid conditions, high winds, and rough waters -- but it would be much, much harder to clean up. And yet -- despite creating a new form of protester called "kayaktivists" who tried to block Shell's rig from leaving Seattle -- the Obama administration green-lighted this lousy plan anyway.
Despite positive PR for the first baby steps on limiting greenhouse gases from coal plants and forging a climate deal with China, Obama's true legacy on climate is helping the U.S. become the world's largest oil-and-gas producer, which is completely at odds with fighting planetary destruction from fossil fuels. Letting Shell drill for even more oil in the Arctic is part and parcel with his half-baked approach. More crude oil is great for short-term, short-sighted politics -- lower prices at the pump! -- but it didn't have to be that way. European allies like Germany have dramatically increased their use of affordable renewable energy during the Obama years -- and created jobs in doing so.