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According to Coral Davenport of The New York Times, "President Obama could leave office with the most aggressive, far-reaching environmental legacy of any occupant of the White House."
Apparently, the man who oversaw the saving of our economy, the killing of Bin Laden, the passing of healthcare reform, the end of the Iraq War, the overhauling of our broken financial system, the U.S. auto industry's incredible comeback, the death of DADT and related cultural milestones like the first mention of gay rights in an inauguration address and his unprecedented affirmation of support for gay marriage in 2012, as well as the fundamental transformation of federal judgeships to include more women than ever before in history isn't even done yet. The real sauce may yet come in the form of his adroit usage of the 1970 Clean Air Act, "the most powerful environmental law in the world", in order to "issue a series of landmark regulations on air pollution, from soot to smog, to mercury and planet-warming carbon dioxide" and "to push forward in a way that no president ever has" a far-reaching, coherent national agenda for tackling global warming and "reshaping major sectors of the economy, specifically auto manufacturing and electric utilities."
Predictably, Republicans are apoplectic in their displeasure, strongly ironic given the now-impermeable but then-functioning bipartisan membrane of 1970: at the time, the Clean Air Act passed with a 73-to-0 Yes vote and granted the EPA, which is now a frequent flogging block of the GOP's, fairly broad powers to do its job. Interestingly, private industry seems to be gearing up for the inevitable impact of Obama's environmental protections:
Officials at the Edison Electric Institute, which lobbies for privately owned electric utilities, said the regulations were forcing the industry to drastically reshape the way it does business. “He’ll have dozens of these rules under his watch,” Quin Shea, vice president of the institute, said of the president. “Taken together, they will have a far-reaching effect of transforming the electric power sector for the next 20 years.”
Unlike Republicans, who quixotically suspend their duties only to be rewarded by their gerrymandered (albeit dwindling) clients, businesses cannot afford to ignore reality. They have to learn to work within it in order to watch the bottom line and stay soluble.
It's great to see a well-accomplished President using his last two years in office to deliver on moving the needle Forward on immigration reform and on seeking to significantly improve upon and invest in our environment. This is even more remarkable when one considers his kept-to-broken ratio of environmentally-focused promises since 2008 in the contextual furnace of Republican obstructionism.
Despite racking up significant "game-changers" in the last six years, President Obama continues to explore socioeconomic and political progress in areas assumed by some to be forgotten, and he continues to pursue a larger project of positioning America as a leader among global superpowers, most recently on display in that historic deal with China. It's certainly the sort of leadership we demand from those we entrust with our nation's highest position of service, but it's nice to witness just the same--especially when it's poised to be felt even decades into the future.