Today’s news of Obama’s unforced, unnecessary, unforgivable capitulation on public health has me down in the dumps. Not just for the 24,000 people who are expected to die prematurely in the next two years while the smog rule is delayed. Not just for the kids who will suffer worse asthma.
It’s also the death of my hopes that climate hawks can be anything but being hacks when it comes to Obama. President Perry would be a nightmare for EPA and the climate effort both — everyone knows that. He would sandbag any smog standard at all. No one who cares about pollution can in good conscience do or advocate anything to make it more likely that he gets elected. U.S. presidential politics is a zero-sum game.
But that doesn’t mean the passion and enthusiasm of climate hawks can’t be better directed. For my part, I’ll probably pay less attention to Obama’s race and more to Congress and cities next year. A better Congress would improve things more than a ballsier president. But that doesn’t mean climate hawks owe the Capitulator in Chief their blood and sweat.
So here’s a sad song from sad-song cellist Adam Hurst, the title track off his album Elegy.
