Well, now what?

The president addressed the nation last night about the on-going disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Many aspects of President Obama’s address were expected. There was the expected umbrage at BP and the lack of precautions that caused the oil spill. There were the expected promises that the government was on top of the situation. The president also reframed his arguments to highlight the urgency of developing alternative energy sources …. which we all expected him to do anyway.

Image credit Doug Mills/New York Times

Let’s quickly go over some of the arguments. There is still plenty of oil left in the earth to last for a couple of decades. However, that oil is increasingly difficult to mine. This is very much the case for the Deepwater Horizon venture. We have all learned first hand that there is lots of crude to be had. But the riskier the venture, the more it poses a threat (job loss, loss of food supply, damage to environment) to our livlihood. If we want to keep drilling, we should all expect these threats to keep surfacing … high risk/high reward. The background to all of this is that the burning of fossil fuels is polluting our environment. And after making these points, the president argued that we are at an inflection point (a nice mathy term for a turning point). President Obama says that this current oil spill “the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now.” So we’ve got our call to action. Lets put more effort – as a country, as individuals, as citizens – into finding and using clean energy sources.

Image credit BP

And, now we come to the other expected part of President Obama’s Oval Office address – Politics. First, the politics that President Obama was playing. He briefly mentioned the need to pass energy reform legislation. He did not specifically mention the Kerry/Lieberman Bill. He did not call for a price to be put on carbon. He gave no specific details on what the country WILL do to become the leading market player in clean energy. He did not lead. Maybe he is incapable of it. Maybe he is too worried about the November elections. Maybe he knows he won’t be getting a strong majority of votes from Democrats. Well, who cares? His job is to lead. Not to be codgered along by congressmen who are only concerned with keeping their jobs.

Now, we’ll get to the politics from the Republican side. House Republican leader John Boehner said, “President Obama should not exploit this crisis to impose a job-killing national energy tax on struggling families and small businesses.” Senate Minority Leader Mith McConnell said that “the White House may view this oil spill as an opportunity to push its agenda in Washington, but Americans are more concerned about what it plans to do to solve the crisis at hand.” Gee, guys. Thanks for that bit of help. The president is trying to solve a problem. If you don’t believe that there is a problem, say so. If you do think that there is a problem, then solving it is not just the administration’s agenda. It’s America’s agenda. Do something about it.

So. What’s going to happen now?

Note to read the original article that Thomas Friedman is quoting in one of our links, go here.