President Obama appears to be punting the issue of climate change until after the Congress handles the “fiscal cliff” situation and instead prefers an educational strategy. You can read a transcript of the news conference here.
As you can read in the transcript President Obama is putting the economy ahead of climate change, even though the two should not be separated. Hurricane Sandy and other severe weather events have a huge economic toll. Instead of addressing the issue of climate change when most necessary, President Obama prefers to address the issue of jobs, although he talked plenty about green jobs throughout his first 4 years. It will be interesting to see how the next 4 years unfolds, but punting on addressing climate change and instead relying on an educational process is an easy out. I don’t expect there to be a drastic shift in Obama’s policies, however, he could have taken the opportunity to note that the State of California began selling permits for the nation’s largest cap and trade program. I hope that Obama can quickly outline what measures he hopes his administration will take in addressing the threat of climate change.