“Green” Obama

Barack Obama has decided to impress a dizzying pace on reforms during his first days in the White House. In contrast with the preceding administration, last Monday he signed several executive orders that will serve as the foundation of a “new economy of energy.” Obama is prepared to use the necessary power to combat the numerous hardships that have surfaced with the economic crisis and the resulting international political instability. The fight against climate change, disregarded and even looked down on under Bush’s administration, has now been adopted as a guide of action in several directions.

The plan, created by Obama, will try to regain ground in the areas of efficient energy and the use of renewable energies, issues that the governments of major developed countries have been concerned about for many years. With regards to the North American automobile industry, one might think that the fuel consumption standards approved by Obama would create additional cost that would deepen the difficulties of the sector, as happened in the past when some big firms tried timidly to reform. But the White House plans to do exactly the opposite: the new laws, in addition to financial aid, will translate into the necessary and urgent renewal of this industry and above all, its product: the automobile.

On the other hand, Obama’s commitment to fight climate change will have severe repercussions on United States’ foreign policy. Among the current letters of appointment, Todd Stern will be responsible for environmental matters in the State Department. Stern was the U.S. negotiator for the Kyoto Protocol, which Washington subsequently refused to ratify, and whose regulations did not apply to China or India. Obama has announced that he will examine this position and request much more of these two countries that, like the United States, find themselves emitting the most contaminants.

But the main political message of this environmental fight is directed towards the oil producers. Reducing the United States’ dependence on crude oil from the Gulf means, among other things, limiting the flow of dollars that have decisively marked the economy and international relations in the past decades. This will have an impact on a region where worldwide peace and security are still being decided. In this way, Obama seems to establish a subtle but unmistakable relation between fighting climate change and greater freedom of action for the United States, which until now, has been forced to consider being a political ally to regimes that hold the U.S. an energy hostage.