Obama’s Environmental Policy

June 4, 2008

Associated Press has announced that Barack Obama’s delegate count has reached the level needed to secure the nomination, and while the rest of the country waits for Hillary to finally step aside, it is time to take a closer look at the environmental policy of the likely next president of the United States.

The most notable aspect of Obama’s green policy came when he cosponsored the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act. The bill proposed a reduction of national greenhouse gas emissions of 80% by the year 2050. He is also an original sponsor of the less ambitious Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act, introduced by Senators Joe Lieberman and John McCain, the presumptive republican nominee. It is no doubt confusing that Obama would sponsor two bills that have such similar aims, but with quite different end goals.

To attain these tough targets, Mr. Obama would like to see a national cap-and-trade system, similar to the one recently announced in Ontario and Quebec. The government would auction off all of the emissions permits, forcing companies to pay for all of the carbon they emit. The revenue generated from the permits, estimated to be between $30 billion and $50 billion would be used to develop green technology and to scale up its use across the country.

Obama is a supporter of coal-to-liquid technology, which, while originally drawing skepticism, is now accepted is a viable method to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fight global warming. As well, Mr. Obama is a big supporter of ethanol production in the US to cut the use of traditional fossil fuels. By 2022 he hopes to see 36 billion gallons of biofuels used in the US, rising to 60 billion gallons by 2030.

Senator Obama would like to see a quarter of all US electricity to be generated by renewable sources by 2020, and to set an example for the rest of the country, he believes the federal government should get 30% of the electricity from renewables by 2020.

Other highlights of Obama’s proposed environmental policy include:

calling for all US buildings to be carbon neutral by 2030

a drop in oil consumption in the US by 35% at minimum by 2030

improving energy efficiency by 50% nationwide by 2030

phasing out incandescent light bulbs in favor of energy saving bulbs by 2014

Most recently, as both John McCain and Hillary Clinton have advocated a summer tax holiday on gas, Mr. Obama has stayed the course by opposing such measures, calling it poor environmental and economic policy.

Certainly all of this sounds impressive, and for the most part it is. One area of concern, however, is his staunch support for biofuels and ethanol. There is without a doubt and big future in biofuel and they will play a big role in fighting global warming, but the current US policy of heavily subsiding ethanol does more harm than good to the environment. The vast majority of US ethanol is derived from corn, which is one of the most inefficient ways to produce ethanol and is only able to stay in operation with the help of government money. With improved technology, biofuels in America can be part of the solution to global warming, but for now we strongly oppose the use of corn-based ethanol in the United States.

Recession ??

In economics, a recession is a general slowdown in economic activity over a sustained period of time, or a business cycle contraction. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way. Production as measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employment, investment spending, capacity utilization, household incomes and business profits all fall during recessions.

Governments usually respond to recessions by adopting expansionary macroeconomic policies, such as increasing money supply, increasing government spending and decreasing taxation.

In a 1975 New York Times article, economic statistician Julius Shiskin suggested several rules of thumb for identifying a recession, one of which was "two down quarters of GDP". In time, the other rules of thumb were forgotten, and a recession is now often defined simply as a period when GDP falls (negative real economic growth) for at least two quarters. Some economists prefer a definition of a 1.5% rise in unemployment within 12 months.

In the United States the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is generally seen as the authority for dating US recessions. The NBER defines an economic recession as: "a significant decline in [the] economic activity spread across the country, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP growth, real personal income, employment (non-farm payrolls), industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales." Almost universally, academics, economists, policy makers, and businesses defer to the determination by the NBER for the precise dating of a recession's onset and end.

Homosexuality ????

Homosexuality refers to romantic or sexual attraction or behavior among members of the same sex, situationally or in an enduring disposition. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is considered to lie within the heterosexual-homosexual continuum of human sexuality, and refers to an individual’s identity based on those attractions and membership in a community of others who share them.

Homosexuality is found in many animal species. The prevalence of homosexuality among humans is difficult to determine accurately; studies suggest between two and twenty percent of the population exhibit some degree of homosexual tendency, though in many earlier cultures homosexual relations were highly prevalent. Throughout history, individual aspects of homosexuality have been admired or condemned according to various societies' sexual norms. When praised, those aspects were seen as a way to improve society; when condemned, particular activities were seen as a sin or a disease, and some homosexual behavior was prohibited by law. Since the middle of the 20th century homosexuality has been gradually delisted as a disease and decriminalized in nearly all developed countries. However, the legal status of homosexual relations varies widely by country and there remain jurisdictions in which certain homosexual behaviors are crimes with severe penalties including death.

Many homosexual people hide their feelings and activities out of fear of disapproval or violence; they are commonly said to be closeted. Openly declaring one's orientation is known as coming out of the closet. Efforts toward emancipation of homosexuality as it is currently understood began in the 1860s; since the mid-1950s there has been an accelerating trend towards increased visibility, acceptance, and civil rights for lesbian, gay and bisexual people. Nevertheless, homophobia persists, and in particular young people subjected to it are at greater risk of socialization difficulties including suicide. Currently the most common adjectives in use are lesbian for women and gay for men, though some prefer other terms or none at all.

lesbian ????????????

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an adjective, to describe characteristics of an object or activity related to female same-sex desire.

Lesbian as a concept, used to differentiate women with a shared sexual orientation, is a 20th-century construct. Although female homosexuality has appeared in many cultures throughout time, not until recently has lesbian described a group of people. In the late 19th century, sexologists published their observations on same-sex desire and behavior, and designated lesbians in Western culture as a distinct entity. As a result, women who became aware of their new medical status formed underground subcultures in Europe and North America. Further broadening of the term occurred in the 1970s with the influence of second wave feminism. Historians since have re-examined relationships between women in history, and have questioned what qualifies a woman or a relationship as lesbian. The result of such discussion has introduced three components to identifying lesbians: sexual behavior, sexual desire, or sexual identity.

Women's sexuality throughout history has largely been constructed by men, who have limited acknowledgment of lesbianism either as a possibility or a valid expression of sexuality due to the absence of males in a lesbian relationship. Early sexologists based their characterization of lesbians on their beliefs that women who challenged their strictly prescribed gender roles were mentally ill. Since then, many lesbians have often reacted to their designation as immoral outcasts by constructing a subculture based on gender role rebellion. Lesbianism has sometimes been in vogue throughout history, which affects how lesbians are viewed by others as well as how they view themselves. Some women who engage in homosexual behavior may reject the lesbian identity entirely, refusing to identify themselves as lesbian or bisexual.

The different ways lesbians have been portrayed in the media suggests that Western society at large has been simultaneously intrigued and threatened by women who challenge feminine gender roles, and fascinated and appalled with women who are romantically involved with other women. Women who adopt the lesbian identity, however, share experiences that form an outlook similar to ethnic identity: as homosexuals, they are unified by the discrimination and potential rejection they face from their families, friends, and others. As women, they face concerns separate from men. Lesbians may encounter distinct health concerns. Political conditions and social attitudes also continue to affect the formation of lesbian relationships and families.