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A post by Ken Ward at his Coal Tattoo blog inspired me to follow up on my own post about reactions to President Obama's references to energy development and policy in his State of the Union (SOTU) address last week.
The exchange between the President and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) during Obama's meeting with the GOP House on January 29th was just one of many interesting moments of the Q and A portion of the conference. (See examples here and here.) Having been reminded of Obama's thoughts on energy policy and resource extraction during his SOTU address, I was interested to see some of the issues revisited at the GOP conference. It's not surprising that Capito would bring up coal.
As a Tennessee coalfield citizen, I've been watching the evolution of a national discussion on coal for several tears (oops, Freudian slip -- I had meant to say years but tears works, too, for many of us in the coalfields). It's always been dangerous for people to oppose the coal industry, but, in the past year or so, aggression toward grassroots activists has been amping up. Since West Virginia is a coal-ground-zero state, you can imagine that emotional amperage is higher there than it is in Tennessee. Here we've had some damage and we have our critics, but we're more in the position of trying to prevent the wide-scale threats to people and nature that already traumatize our Appalachian neighbors.
Needless to say, we're all interested in what Obama thinks about the future of coal and what his administration will demand from the EPA, Corps of Engineers and Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement to address the coal cycle's contribution to greenhouse gases, destruction of headwater ecosystems, and threats to public health, economics and social infrastructure in coalfield communities. But depending how bad one's homelands have already been (or could be) rendered insecure by the coal industry, any one of us might hear Obama's ideas with different levels of hope and trust.
So, here's some feeling-thinking points for me at the moment, from my home and land here in Tennessee.
I hear Obama's views on coal as somewhat visionary in that he appears to see a better place we could go, but also understands at least a little about where we have been, where we are, and the steps between here and a future that ultimately leaves coal in the ground. I trust that he wants to move the country as far in that direction as possible.
I'm concerned about Obama's past and present statements on so-called "clean coal technology" and would like to know how solid his belief in it is. The only clean thing we can ever have with coal is a clean break. We have enough scientific evidence to call into question any big investment in carbon capture and storage, coal-to-liquids or any of the other products, processes or policies circumscribed by clean coal fantasies. We would be better off putting our investment energy into sources that have passed a "can this really be done cleanly, greenly and economically" stage, and can come on line more quickly.
I also wonder how far Obama is willing to go with his endorsement of (un)clean coal, nuclear plants, expansion of offshore drilling, and natural gas extraction if he is presented with valid evidence that risk of harm to people and nature is significant enough to require strict rules for extraction and waste disposal, or to look for different solutions entirely.
Having heard Obama's SOTU address and watched a lot of his Q and A with the GOP, I have to admit to feeling more hope that Obama can stand in the presence of opposition and listen, but still stand up to powerful voices wanting a different direction. I was beginning to wonder.
After thinking about all of this stuff over the past week, I guess this is the point at which I turned and saw myself in the mirror. It's becoming so clear to me what an incredible time and space of opportunity we -- the people -- have to fundamentally change the way America operates.
What forces, what structures, what processes, thoughts and feelings stand in our way?
Recently, in an interview with Bill Moyers, Melissa Harris-Lacewell made a comment that reminded me of an important dynamic in the relationship of citizens to their leaders:
I think that the brilliance of the Obama campaign had to do with creating a sort of outline figure of who Obama was. A figure of change, of hope, a representation of what America most wanted itself to be. But what was amazing was how at the level of very ordinary people, there was an opportunity to project onto Barack Obama all of your greatest hopes. It's how I ended up finding myself in a coalition with people who I typically disagreed with. I mean, there was a moment when I realized that, you know, I was in a coalition with, you know, Colin Powell. So, in many ways, I think that this governing reflects something similar. And that the missing piece is that those same people who had such enthusiasm to tell a story during the campaign, have failed to tell those stories during governing. We got right on the defensive immediately and started feeling very anxious. And I'm not sure that that was all coming from the White House.
I'm pretty sure that within a short time of this interview (maybe on MSNBC with Matthews, Olbermann or Maddow?), I also heard Harris-Lacewell say that when people are having bad times, such as we are with our current economic conditions, they also project their fears onto their leaders. (Sorry, I haven't been able to find the quote or who said it for sure.)
This is a profound (but not new) idea for both citizens and politicians to think about. It invites exploration and reflection on who we vote for and how we engage (or not) in political process. We, the people, need to be as willing to stand up and tell our stories as Obama was to meet with the GOP, and as willing to look at ourselves in the mirror as the White House and the GOP were to televise their meeting.
If we can do this, the forces, structures, processes, thoughts and feelings that stand in the way of social, environmental and economic justice will become clear and we can figure out how to remove the obstacles. We -- as many of us as possible -- need to get on it. We have evidence that whole ecosystems are at risk from business as usual, and some of our brothers and sisters in communities on the frontlines of injustice are not sure how much longer they can wait.
Update on 31 January 2010 at 5:26 pm: After I posted this article, I found an interesting link sent by a friend from West Virginia. Check out this new post on coalfield community trauma at In Hawk Space.
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