Former vice president and current environmental evangelist Al Gore is not happy with President Obama.
In a blog post yesterday Gore criticized Obama for telling the EPA to withdraw a proposal to tighten government smog regulations, citing the need to reduce regulatory burdens and uncertainty for businesses during a time of economic uncertainty.
Gore’s post accused the President of bowing to polluters and said that it would result in higher medical bills for seniors with lung disease and more children developing asthma, though he didn’t back up his charges with any scientific proof.
Instead of relying on science, President Obama appears to have bowed to pressure from polluters who did not want to bear the cost of implementing new restrictions on their harmful pollution—even though economists have shown that the US economy would benefit from the job creating investments associated with implementing the new technology. The result of the White House’s action will be increased medical bills for seniors with lung disease, more children developing asthma, and the continued degradation of our air quality.
Gore also praised the protesters who demonstrated in front of the White House last Friday against a proposed tar sands pipeline that he said would bring a massive increase in global warming pollution.
Here is Gore’s blog post in its entirety:
Confronting Disappointment
On Friday afternoon, as brave and committed activists continued their non-violent civil disobedience outside the White House in protest of the tar sands pipeline that would lead to a massive increase in global warming pollution, President Obama ordered the EPA to abandon its pursuit of new curbs on emissions that worsens disease-causing smog in US cities. Earlier this year, the EPA’s administrator, Lisa Jackson, wrote that the levels of pollution now permitted — put in place by the Bush-Cheney administration– are “not legally defensible.” Those very same rules have now been embraced by the Obama White House.
Instead of relying on science, President Obama appears to have bowed to pressure from polluters who did not want to bear the cost of implementing new restrictions on their harmful pollution—even though economists have shown that the US economy would benefit from the job creating investments associated with implementing the new technology. The result of the White House’s action will be increased medical bills for seniors with lung disease, more children developing asthma, and the continued degradation of our air quality.
As ABC News noted, Gore has been largely absent from the world stage lately but apparently this environmental betrayal by Obama was just too much for Big Al.
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