Obama’s Executive Action Rollouts Increasing in Pace
By Gregory Korte. As President Obama stood in an Everglades swamp to speak on climate change Wednesday, the White House rolled out a package of eight executive actions, implemented by seven government agencies, to “protect the people and places that climate change puts at risk.”
The announcement contained no executive orders, sweeping directives, legislative proposals or bill signings.
Instead, the actions include smaller-bore staples of a “pen-and-phone” strategy that shows no sign of letting up: a report on the value of parks to the environment, a proclamation declaring National Parks Week, and conservation efforts in Florida, Hawaii, Puget Sound and the Great Lakes.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the actions were an effort to deal with the impacts of climate change “even in the face of pretty significant opposition from Republicans in Congress.”
Indeed, the actions have a political component, part of a White House strategy to work around Congress and force Republicans to respond to the president’s agenda. (Read more from “Obama’s Executive Action Rollouts Increasing in Pace” HERE)
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Could Obama’s Everglades Stop Hurt the Everglades?
By Michael Grunwald. President Bill Clinton had just launched an $8 billion effort to save the dying Florida Everglades, the biggest ecosystem restoration project ever. Now he was gabbing in the Oval Office with two Senate aides, gushing about the bill he had signed. “That was great,” he exulted. “The Everglades is great!” But after some happy chitchat about panthers, gators and the politics of the swamp, Clinton got serious. Your generation’s challenge, he told the young staffers, will be global warming.
At the time, it barely registered as a green priority, but the seas were already rising. “If you don’t do something about climate change,” Clinton said, “your Everglades is going to be underwater.”
This Earth Day afternoon, President Barack Obama will visit Everglades National Park to use the iconic wetland as a symbol of the climate threat Clinton first flagged 15 years ago. The Everglades is about as flat and low-lying as a landscape can get; the park has a sign identifying “Rock Reef Pass: Elevation 3 Feet.” The freshwater ecosystem is also surrounded by saltwater seas and estuaries, which scientists believe are rising six to 10 times faster than the average over the past 3,000 years. Obama will argue that climate change threatens not only this unique natural jewel but also South Florida’s lucrative ecotourism industry, as well as underground aquifers that provide drinking water for 7 million people. (Read more from this story HERE)
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