There was quite a bit of discussion on Obama’s speech yesterday and the concensus was that we didn’t like it. I have to say that I also agree that I didn’t like the speech. I didn’t dislike the speech but I’ve also realized I am not the target of the speech and neither are you. The target of the speech was not news junkies who are watching the live spillcam but the American public
MMonides, an energy policy expert at Balloon Juice had this to say about the speech:
IM less than HO, POTUS addressed every issue he needed to last night. He discussed the past, how we got in this situation, his own mistake in believing the safety technology was sufficient, the government response, and BP’s “recklessness.” He went on to commit to the Gulf’s recovery and to accountability, and presented a blue print for our government’s next steps. He tied the situation to our energy policy specifically, but without pushing any hot-button issues. He acknowledged MMS corruption, and his Administration’s plans to address it. He even pointed out how our addiction to fossil fuels has led us to us to risky deep water drilling, and how the environmental costs of fossil fuels far outweighs any energy tax. He continued to be the mature one in the room, asking his opposition for ideas instead of attacks.
It was sober, responsible, and an important update for confused citizens trying to understand this situation, presented by their POTUS in simple language that was designed to inform and reassure.
There was just no way that President Obama was going to give specific details in a 20 minute speech. I heard him trying to say that there’s no easy answers to this problem and he was pointing us to the future.
It’s not only MMonides that had good things to say about the speech. Here’s Jed Lewison at Daily Kos:
Moreover, I think he made several very important points on energy policy.
1. Obama gave the House credit for passing “a comprehensive energy and climate bill” and said that the House’s bill reflected the principles that he campaigned on.
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2.Obama said that the time to act is now, and that any legislation must “tackle our addiction to fossil fuels.”
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3. Obama argued that energy reform will provide a boost to our economy
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4. Finally, President Obama explained the basic ideas behind peak oil in plain, easy-to-understand English
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That is about as clear and concise an explanation I’ve seen of why dependence on oil is going to be increasingly risky and expensive. True, it didn’t cover climate change, but there’s more than one reason why oil is a bad idea, and in the context of a speech about an offshore drilling disaster, this was a very important point to make.
It’s true, President Obama did not get into the details of procedural issues like whether and when the Senate should vote. But one of the things we learned from the health care debate is that dwelling on procedure turns off the public. And he wasn’t as detailed on policy proposals as Jimmy Carter was in 1979. But Jimmy Carter’s approach didn’t manage to solve our energy problems, no matter how well-intentioned he may have been.
Do you think the American people have heard the case for moving to cleaner energy presented this way? Most haven’t. It may be something we’ve discussed on the activist left but what most Americans have heard is “drill baby drill.” As Jed explained, this is Obama as Educator-in-Chief, rather than Crisis-Manager-in-Chief.
Just in case you don’t remember what we’re up against, here’s the Republican reaction to the speech:
The Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative members of the House, released a statement today calling the $20 billion BP escrow account a “Chicago-style political shakedown.”
“BP’s reported willingness to go along with the White House’s new fund suggests that the Obama Administration is hard at work exerting its brand of Chicago-style shakedown politics, wrote chairman Tom Price (R-GA). “These actions are emblematic of a politicization of our economy that has been borne out of this Administration’s drive for greater power and control.”
I think one problem that Obama has is that people don’t want to believe that we don’t know how to stop the oil spill, even though that’s the truth. I hope we get policy addresses by people like Steven Chu and Ken Salazar with more details, for the people like us who crave more information.