President Obama rejected claims on Thursday that his administration’s conditional approval of Arctic drilling means he isn’t serious about addressing climate change.
Obama has taken heat from green groups in recent months over offshore drilling, which the White House has signaled it would allow companies to pursue. At the same time, however, the administration is trying to convince other nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions as part of upcoming United Nations climate talks.
“We’ve shut off drilling in the most sensitive arctic areas, including Bristol Bay,” the @POTUS account responded during a Thursday question-and-answer session on Twitter. “But since we can’t prevent oil exploration completely in region we’re setting the highest possible standards.”
The White House signaled in its draft five-year offshore leasing plan that it would allow oil and gas production in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time since the 1980s. It’s also allowing it in the Arctic, though it took several Arctic plots off the market. This month, the Interior Department gave Royal Dutch Shell a conditional green light to restart its Arctic drilling program, which was beset by gaffes in 2012 and later put on ice.
Obama reiterated over Twitter remarks he made this month at a Camp David retreat with Middle East leaders in saying the administration rejected Shell’s original proposal because it was too weak.
Environmental organizations argue a spill would be more difficult to clean up in the fragile Arctic ecosystem. They’ve also accused Obama of double-speak on climate. He has stressed the urgency of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which most scientists say are responsible for warming the planet, largely by burning fossil fuels. At the same time, the Obama administration has enabled offshore fossil fuel exploration.
The United States has taken the lead on the U.N. climate talks, which will begin in late November in Paris. Nations hope to strike a framework for governing emissions reductions beyond 2020 with the goal of keeping global temperatures from rising 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. Many climate scientists say that goal would be difficult to reach without drastic emissions cuts.
Obama said over Twitter that a non-binding, bilateral agreement between the U.S. and China showed cooperation is possible. The November 2014 agreement between the world’s top emitters said the U.S. would cut emissions at least 26 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, while China would see its emissions peak around 2030 and get 20 percent of its power from zero-emitting energy by then.
Republicans, however, have taken shots at that agreement, which they argue allows China to keep burning fossil fuels as the U.S. scales back. The Senate has attempted to handcuff similar deals, and will likely continue to do so.
But Obama said collaboration with other countries was already occurring. He cited efforts with Brazil, a major site of deforestation that has added to emissions through the loss of carbon-consuming trees.
“[A]greement with China big and will be working w Brazil to develop their plans. We will all need to do more with US leading,” the @POTUS account tweeted.
